Humans Are Better Able To Describe Warm Colors Than Cool Colors

[Judi Lynn]

By Josh Davis
20 SEP 2017, 11:55

Even though the sky may obviously be blue to us, this is not an objective fact. In many cultures around the world, the labeling of different hues is more subjective than we might be inclined to think. New research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, seems to back up the notion that our perception of color is far more to do with culture than biology.

By asking 40 members of the Tsimane’ tribe, who live in a remote part of the Bolivian Amazon and have developed language separately from surrounding groups, researchers were able to assess which colors have more words. These colors were more distinct to the tribe. They found that consistently with speakers of at least 100 other languages, the Tsimane’ could distinguish well between black, white, and red hues, but unlike us, not the greens and blues.

“When we look at it, it turns out it’s the same across every language that we studied,” explained lead author Edward Gibson. “Every language has this amazing similar ordering of colors, so that reds are more consistently communicated than greens or blues.”

Most of us see the same color when we look at objects regardless of where we are from, but it is the information we need that varies from culture to culture. The Tsimane’ simply don’t need to describe as many colors as we do, and when they do it tends to be those on the warmer side of the color spectrum.

More:
http://www.iflscience.com/brain/humans-are-better-able-to-describe-warm-colors-than-cool-colors/

Science:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/122853601

[tblue37]

1. All those gray-eyed heroes and heroines in literature of the past were actually blue-eyed,

but the distinction between gray and blue was not as much noted until relatively recently.

[guillaumeb]

2. Color me impressed. eom