Toys: Color and Shape

                When you walk in a department store and head to the toy aisle, the first thing you can identify is where the dolls and trucks are. Why does this seem to be? This is because the toy aisles are color-coded. It’s commonly known by our society that gender can be differentiated through toy selection. The real question is what or who makes the decision for us to choose these specific toys for the two sexes. Who says what toys boys are to play with? Who says dolls and dress-up is just for girls? Also we have to wonder why these toys are always gender stereotypical colors. According to research on toy selection, by Vasanti Jadva, Melissa Hines and Susan Golombok, color has a role on what toys boys and girls choose.

                In their article, Infants’ preferences for Toys, Colors, and Shapes: Sex Differences and Similarities, Jadva et al(2010) stated, “girls’ toys tended to be colored in pastel shades, especially pink and lavender, and boys’ toys tended to be colored in intense colors, such as red, blue and black” (p. 1262). They also examined experiments done by different researchers that tested three different age groups, each group consisting of 3 boys/3 girls. The first group was ages 3 to 7. The researchers set 6 felt pigs (3 stereotyped male colors being blue, brown and maroon and 3 stereotyped female colors being light pink, bright pink and lavender) in front of each child individually. All chose a pig in their stereotypical color. The second experiment worked with children ages 3 to 12. These children were asked to choose their three favorite colors from a color chart. Each child chose three colors from their stereotypical colors. The boys chose all blues and the girls chose pink/purple. The last experiment Jadva et al (2010) examined worked with adults. The adults were forced to choose a color. Even the adults chose colors in their stereotype.

                Jadva et al (2010) continued evaluating other research, but they also did their own experiment using toy selection. They chose 5 colors (pink, pale blue, blue, red, and colorless). They created visual images of cars and dolls in these 5 colors and had the children choose which one they liked the most. Their research showed that color did matter, but the shape had a larger influence on selection. In general the girls chose the dolls and the boys chose the cars.

                After reading the article by Jadva et al (2010), I found they didn’t find as much evidence that I thought they would have in color influence. This makes me question though, why then, if color doesn’t matter as much as shape, are all girls’ toys always pink? Why does the market use color as significantly as they do if it doesn’t matter? Even stores color code their aisle according to gender. I believe color matters a little more than some people want to believe.

(girls aisle: PINK and barbies and dress-up)
(boys aisle: BLUE and action figures and light sabers)

  

Jadva, V., Hines, M., Golombok, S. (2010). Infants’ Preferences for Toys, Colors, and Shapes: Sex Differences and Similarities . Arch Sex Behav, 39, 1261-1273.

            DOI:10.1007/s10508-010-9618-z



Coloring Activites: Who knew there was more behind the scenes?

                Coloring has always been an important skill for young children. The color crayons children chose to use have a lot more meaning than what people may think. Girls use warmer colors when coloring pictures, but they don’t differentiate between colors as much as boys do. An article based on colors of gender entitled, “The Color of Children’s Gender Stereotypes”, by Rachel Karniol stated:

Gender-differentiated color preferences are also evident in children’s coloring activities. There are two general patterns. First, although the age of gender-differentiated color use varies across studies, American, British and Japanese boys between the ages of 5–10 generally use significantly fewer colors in their free drawings than girls, and boys often opt to draw in black and white. Second, girls use a greater variety of colors, more warm colors, and especially more pinks and purples than boys. (p.2)

 It was found that their use of colors resulted from the provisions that were given to them by their parents and teachers. Stereotypes are constantly enforced just by the materials that they are given to use. Research has also shown that girls are more drawn to vibrant colors than boys are also.

                Overall, by looking at different research we can see that gender stereotypes can be universal in some aspects. The research that I read discussed how they found that coloring affected boys and girls in not only America but Britain, Japan and Israel. Colors are universal and everyone learns what to associate with them through their culture.

Karniol, R. (2011). The Color of Children's Gender Stereotypes.Sex Roles. 65,119-132.
            DOI: 10.1007/s11199-011-9989-1

(NOTICE: the girl is dressed in pink, the boy in blue and neutral yellow. The blue pencils near the boys, the purple in front of the girl)