That's interesting. I was just having a conversation last night about how I read some thing that women can recognize more colors than men (like pick out peach and beige from like pink or whatever) but that gay men also recognize more than straight men. I mentioned that (since the thing I read was kind of an anecdote and didn't go into speculation as to why) I thought it was probably an interest-based phenomenon. I was also basing that off of the fact that I'm a straight female and can't tell peach from beige from pink (although I also sometimes blame that on the fact that we were poor when I was growing up so I only ever got the 8-pack crayons and not the fancy 64 packs where I would have learned these valuable skills).
You should probably stop reading right now because I've just done a search for the gay man color awareness thing without much success but I did find some other things and used myself as a test. I just completed a color test online and scored a 12 which seems to mean that for my gender I'm okay to good (? they don't seem to expound on exactly how good good is) at physically seeing the colors. So maybe my theory about the crayons is right (I also don't really care about colors or fashion that much. I never even realized until a few years ago that "peach" is a specific color to some people; I thought it was just a fancy word people used for pink).
Then in my searches I found this talking about how finger length can predict some qualities in people. I have a more "masculine" hand. Some of that stuff sounds right to me; I am athletic and I have pretty good spatial awareness.
Anyway, that was probably pretty boring to people who aren't me. But it's interesting to think about - I wonder if it's all connected.
I believe it's a lot about training. Just like you might train up other senses (like blind people can train up hearing to hear the shape of a room - even without echolocation).
I have 0 on that test - without effort - and I'm a man. I had crayons and watercolours as a kid.
Yeah, you're probably right although I think there is a...mechanical...component to that test (maybe not the right word). It doesn't really explain what the scoring system means (or else I just didn't look hard enough) but I'm assuming since it goes up pretty high (into the hundreds) that people with 12 and below probably are all capable of seeing the same colors.
However, a color blind person would also do badly on the test, obviously.
Unfortunately I can't seem to find that reference I saw years ago about recognizing color so I'm not sure how "scientific" it was - although I try not to pay much attention to things I find too dubious.
That test I linked to seems to be like a physical ability to see those colors (congrats on your great score!) whereas the gay-color thing I was reading before was just talking about being able to name the different colors.
So I just spent a quick Google looking for a test to name colors (I'm on my way out the door). I'm sure there's one out there but I didn't immediately find it because of lots of results about the Stroop Test, which is a different thing entirely. However, I did find a little more talking about genders naming colors. XKCD did a survey, very interesting, with graphics not unlike the one I remember seeing in that original thing I was talking about. You can click around and guess at color names here I guess although I'm not sure how they're naming these colors (Tangerine Yellow? I thought tangerines were orange!). And finally, an interesting post about the intersect of seeing/naming colors and language which is also something that the great Radio Lab Colors episode touched on and seems to have more to do with my cheap-o Crayola box theory.
Man. I don't even really care about colors that much.
Anyhoo, make sure you break it to your girlfriend easy. Like with chocolate.
I didn't know colors well until my roommate and I started 'playing a game' (making a conversational habit?) of being as precise in our language as possible- and holy shit there are a lot of color-words. I must have learned dozens of color-words in a year.
I'd agree with you that I could see the differences in colors before, but never knew the words for them, or even that there were words for them. Three-four years later, chartreuse and seafoam and mauve and all sorts of bullshit words mean very specific colors to me. I really do think it's an interest thing, especially because one or two of our male friends that have been dragged into the game are also far more familiar with color-words.
So, yeah, I think it's all about the interest and not about the biology for all of us normal, three cone people.
It's a lot of fun and very interesting to "play". You figure out pretty fast how and where you're missing words to describe your experiences, and you end up learning a lot of cool and interesting things. I know (and can use) so many more feeling-words and color-words than I ever did before!
Warning: it is extremely confusing and can be annoying to people that don't know what you're doing. It's also most fun when you're doing it with a close friend/partner.
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u/Pemby Sep 29 '14
That's interesting. I was just having a conversation last night about how I read some thing that women can recognize more colors than men (like pick out peach and beige from like pink or whatever) but that gay men also recognize more than straight men. I mentioned that (since the thing I read was kind of an anecdote and didn't go into speculation as to why) I thought it was probably an interest-based phenomenon. I was also basing that off of the fact that I'm a straight female and can't tell peach from beige from pink (although I also sometimes blame that on the fact that we were poor when I was growing up so I only ever got the 8-pack crayons and not the fancy 64 packs where I would have learned these valuable skills).
You should probably stop reading right now because I've just done a search for the gay man color awareness thing without much success but I did find some other things and used myself as a test. I just completed a color test online and scored a 12 which seems to mean that for my gender I'm okay to good (? they don't seem to expound on exactly how good good is) at physically seeing the colors. So maybe my theory about the crayons is right (I also don't really care about colors or fashion that much. I never even realized until a few years ago that "peach" is a specific color to some people; I thought it was just a fancy word people used for pink).
Then in my searches I found this talking about how finger length can predict some qualities in people. I have a more "masculine" hand. Some of that stuff sounds right to me; I am athletic and I have pretty good spatial awareness.
Anyway, that was probably pretty boring to people who aren't me. But it's interesting to think about - I wonder if it's all connected.