As part of a recent study on gender norms, University of Maryland sociologist Philip Cohen asked nearly 2,000 men and women a simple question: "What's your favorite color?" Blue turned out to be most popular across the board, followed by green for men and purple for women. The color preferences break down as follows:

A sample of 1,974 men and women were asked whether they preferred purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, or pink. (Image credit: Phillip Cohen Family Inequality

Cohen cautioned that he did not survey a random sample of the population, but rather a "convenience sample" of students, faculty and staff at his university, as well as people who heard about the study through social media and link sharing. "However, when I controlled statistically for age, race/ethnicity, education level and student status, the gender pattern was basically unchanged, so that helps increase confidence that the result is not too heavily skewed by who I sampled," Cohen told Life's Little Mysteries.

So, there you have it. Humanity's favorite colors.

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