Color preference tracks the objects a color brings to mind

The ecological valence theory of Palmer and Schloss (2010) proposes that we like a color in proportion to how much we like the things it reminds us of. Their weighted affective valence estimate, built from people's object associations, explained about 80 percent of the variation in color preference. It is why blue (clear skies, clean water) is widely liked and murky browns are not. The theory gives the collection a causal account of preference that is compatible with cultural variation: change the objects a culture associates with a color and you can change the preference.

Supplies a mechanism that links biology, environment, and culture, rather than treating preference as a brute fact.

Grade A. Cross-sample experimental study, peer-reviewed.

1. Palmer, S. E., & Schloss, K. B. (2010). An Ecological Valence Theory of Human Color Preference. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(19), 8877-8882. peer reviewed
   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0906172107