this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2024
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I always feel awkward when asked my favorite color, song, or any other type of trivial question. I have my standard responses I remain consistent with over time, but they are only consistent lies. Are those types of questions fundamentally awkward to you too?

I like things that look nice. I may lean toward one color or another at times, but I would never seek out the color before or to the exclusion of something that looks nice. It feels like color prejudice or something to say I have a favorite. I'm open minded to all colors in any situation more like an artistic mind I guess. That is the kind of thought process I go through when I'm asked to pick my favorite (x). I want to respond with the equally vague questions of when and what circumstances.

Some may call it over thinking, but what use is there in saying you have a favorite when in reality it is more complicated. Like, is that favorite song playing at a wedding, a house party, and a funeral. Or, are all your clothes your favorite color.

What do you think a person's response to such questions says about them, their depth, curiosity, and open mindedness?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You just summed up something I never put together directly. I owned a body shop for years and was a painter. My color vision was critical. I learned to spot oddities in peoples preferences and color choices as a result. It is like an intuitive connection where I can tell there is a pattern, but it is not fully defined as to why it exists. I can often tell when a person is color blind based on their color choices and preferences. I thought it had to do with the way they lean into certain tones of red and green/blue. Now that you mention it, I think it is actually likely centered around yellow. I just hadn't pinpointed it specifically. There is a tendency for leaning into the yellow side of red and staying away from purples and some parts of blue/green and complementary palettes. It is not as simple as just staying away from base colors, but more the choice of specific palette combinations.

That has long been a curiosity and something of a party trick for me. Thanks for helping me better define it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Yeah you nailed it! It's generally not a problem at the primary colour level. For example, I have no trouble distinguishing the red and green of a traffic light. But there are, like you say, a lot of ways to mix colours and that's where we get into trouble.

There is a type of colourblindness that affects your perception of yellow, but the red-green types are far more common in the population. It is also much more common in men than women. This is because the trait is carried by X chromosomes, and for a woman to exhibit it, she must have the gene on both X's. Men only have one X and one Y, so if you have it on your X, you're doomed! lol

One thing you may or may not have noticed is colourblind people tend to be more sensitive to subtle differences in shade. This is a compensation the brain works out, similar to how fully blind people develop a sharper sense of hearing. The military even noted that this can help in spotting camouflage on an air photo, and it's one of these rare cases where colourblind individuals were specifically sought out. It usually goes the other way, though. Like we are steered away from careers as electricians, pharmacists, etc. and I totally get that. It's not discriminatory. It's just common sense! :)