Adults have been found cross-culturally to prefer blue to other
colors. It’s a nearly universal preference. But does this
preference occur naturally, or do children and infants have
different preferences? Prior to 2001, there wasn’t a definitive
answer to this question. In that year, Marcel Zentner of the
University of Geneva conducted a study that not only answered
that question, but also sought to explore the relationship
between color and emotion (“Preferences for colours and Colour-
Emotion Combinations in Early Childhood,” Developmental Science,
2001). Zentner’s study showed 3- and 4-year-olds a set of nine
colored cardboard rectangles and asked them to bring them to the
experimenter one by one, starting with the one they liked best.
Next they were showed pictures of three faces: a happy face, a
sad face, and an angry face. They were asked to pick the color
card that went with the face (they only had six cards to choose
from for this task: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Brown, and Black).
The entire task was r