---
title: Does the Average Color Influence Selection?
tags: 
author: [Nakamura Laboratory (Meiji University)](https://www.docswell.com/user/nkmr-lab)
site: [Docswell](https://www.docswell.com/)
thumbnail: https://bcdn.docswell.com/page/9J2G1XL5JR.jpg?width=480
description: Does the Average Color Influence Selection? by Nakamura Laboratory (Meiji University)
published: August 03, 23
canonical: https://www.docswell.com/s/nkmr-lab/ZP9GP2-2023-08-03-174449
---
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Does the Average Color
Influence Selection?
Yuto Sekiguchi
Riho Ueki, Kouta Yokoyama, Satoshi Nakamura
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Q. Which of these “royal copenhagens”
would you choose to buy?
Red
Purple
Blue
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Major Objectives
To clarify and solve the unfairness UIs
in product selection and popularity voting
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Introduction
People make many choices in daily life
I'm having a tough time deciding…
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Introduction
People make many choices in daily life
People are influenced by a variety of factors
I'm having a tough time deciding…
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Introduction
Examples of Factors
Taste
Placement
Price
$20
Fragrance
$25
Character Fonts
Smorrebrod
Quantity
Smorrebrod
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Introduction
Examples of Factors
Taste
Placement
Price
Fragrance
Among these various factors,
we focused on colors.
$20
$25
Character Fonts
Smorrebrod
Quantity
Smorrebrod
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Related Work
Influence of Color in Product Selection
✓ Product color has a significant impact on
selection decisions in product selection.
[Priluck+ 1999]
Priluck Grossman, R., Wisenblit, J. Z.: What we know about consumers’ color choices. Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing
Science, 1999, vol. 5(3), no. 11, p. 78-88.
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Related Work
Influence of Color in Product Selection
✓ Product color has a significant impact on
selection decisions in product selection.
[Priluck el al., 1999]
Product color is likely related to product selection.
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Related Work
Influence of Color in Product Selection
✓ Color variation influences purchase decision,
enjoyment, anxiety, and satisfaction at the time
of selection. [Kobayashi+ 2011]
Which is the best?
I'm glad there
are so many
different kinds!
Kobayashi, H., Yoshitake, M., Tsuchiya. H., Tanaka, Y., Vinai, N., Shinichi, K.: Effect of Color Variation on Consumer Satisfaction with
Choice: The Case of Fashion- and Style-oriented Products. International Association of Societies of Design Research 2011 Proceedings
(4 pages on conference CD−ROM), 2011.
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Related Work
Influence of Color in Product Selection
✓ Color variation influences purchase intention,
enjoyment, anxiety, and satisfaction at the time
of selection. [Kobayashi el al., 2011]
The presence of multiple product colors may also
I'm glad there
Which is thehave
best? some influence on product selection.
are so many
different kinds!
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Goldilocks Effect
People tend to choose the middle option
when there are three levels of alternatives
S: 5kr
M: 8kr
L: 10kr
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Goldilocks Effect
We thought that the Goldilocks effect could be
applied to color as well.
S
M
L
Hue = 2
Hue = 17
Hue = 32
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Hypothesis & Problem
Hypothesis
When two colors' choices and their average color’s choice
are presented at the same time,
the average color choice is more likely to be selected.
Problem
The color of the product is influenced by the color of
the surrounding products and the fairness of the
selection behavior is lost.
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Experiments


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Purpose of the Experiment
To investigate the influence of product color
on consumer choice behavior
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Definition of "average color"
Average color in this experiment means…
A color whose hue, saturation, and lightness are
intermediate between two other colors
A color whose RGB is the average of the RGB of the
other two colors
Hue
RGB
(223,228,232)
(159,196,216)
(95,152,200)
Average Color
2
17
32
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Examples of options and average color
These
10 categories were used in this experiment.
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Selection task
•
Number of Questions for each participant
- 5 categories to check effect (5questions with 3 choices)
- 5 categories for baseline (15questions with 2 choices)
Category×5
Other category×5
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Outline of the Experiment
Reason for providing two choices.
➢ To investigate the selection rate for each of the
two choices in order to clarify the original
selection tendency.
➢ To investigate which of the three choices would
be chosen the most compared to the two
choices.
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Participants
We reqruited participants in Yahoo! crowdsourcing
458 females and 440 males were included in the
analysis after excluding unserious participants.
The percentage of participants in the experiment by generation(%)
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Results (Selection Rate)
The results of the experiment did not indicate that
the average color option was more likely to be chosen.
The average color selection rate for the two-choice
option was 38.93%, while the average color selection
rate for the three-choice option was 36.01%.
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Results (Selection Rate)
These facts indicate that
the results differ from the hypothesis that
"average colors are more likely to be selected."
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Feedbacks from Questionnaire
◆ From the results of the experiment's questionnaire,
there were several choices that were said to have
similar colors and were difficult to distinguish.
◆ The choices circled in orange on this slide were the
choices that some people said were similar.
Ice cream
Drink
：Similar color
：Dissimilar color
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Feedbacks from Questionnaire
◆ From the results of the experiment's questionnaire,
there were several choices that were said to have
similar colors and were difficult to distinguish.
◆ The choices circled in orange on this slide were the
choices that some people said were similar.
Our study also focused on the analysis of
the choices that contained similar colors.
Ice cream
Drink
：Similar color
：Dissimilar color
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Selection rate related to similar colors
When similar colors are included,
the three choices are more likely to
lead to the dissimilar color than the two choices.
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Color vision diversity in male
➢ Male and female may see color differently [Abramov+ 2012]
➢ Males are more color-vision diverse than females.
We conducted a gender analysis
to see if the results differed between males and females.
Abramov, I., Gordon J., Feldman O., Chavarga A.: Sex and vision II: color appearance of monochromatic lights. Biol Sex Differ, 2012,
vol. 3, no. 21, p. 21-35.
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Results (Selection Rate: Female)
Females tend to choose the average color.
The average color tended to be selected more when three choices were
presented than when two choices were presented, with the exception
of the shirt choice.
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Results (Selection Rate: Female)
Similar results to the hypothesis that "average colors
are more likely to be selected” was obtained.
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Results (Selection Rate: Male)
Males do not tend to choose the average color.
The average color tended to be less selected when three choices were
presented than when two choices were presented for all choices.
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Results (Selection Rate: Male)
Dissimilar results to the hypothesis that "average colors are
more likely to be selected” was obtained.
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Discussion (Selection Rate)
This suggests that males and females
see and perceive color differently.
It is pink!!
It is red!!
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Results (Selection Rate)
When similar colors are included, the three choices are
more likely to lead to a dissimilar color than the two choices.
The increase rate for each the choice here is high, and
dissimilar colors are thought to induce selection to a large extent.
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Discussion
Pop-out
→ A pop-out is a visual characteristic that gives a
different impression from other products by
changing the background of the product, as shown
in the figure below.
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Discussion: Pop-out
Pop-out
→ A pop-out is a visual characteristic that gives a
different impression from other products by
changing the background of the product, as shown
in the
figure
below.
It is
known
that pop-out products are
more likely to be selected.
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Discussion: Pop-out
Our results in this case can be considered a similar
phenomenon to pop-out.
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Discussion: Selected Position (Females)
Average color position
females : Average color was most likely to be selected
when placed in the middle.
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Discussion: Selected Position (Males)
Average color position
males : The average color was most likely to be
selected when it was placed on the right.
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Discussion: Selected Position (Males)
It is possible that placing the average color
on the right side may reduce the gender difference
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Future Work
✓ Investigating the causes of differences
in selection rates between male and female.
✓ Investigate whether similar results can be obtained
with logos and characters using multiple colors.
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Conclusion
Objectives
Clarify th effect of the Goldilocks effect
in selective behavior.
Background
Possibility that product color is related
to selection behavior.
Hypothesis
Average colors are more likely to be selected
in the three choices.
Result
Females tend to select averaged color
Males do not tend to select averaged color
41