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Has the world become less colourful?

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Re: Has the world become less colourful?

#51

Post by esrauch »

avar wrote: post #46
thematrixturtle wrote: post #34

There is a famous if possibly apocryphal study where random people were asked to rate various toaster colors, and everybody swooned over lime green and hot pink and whatnot. After they finished, they were told that as their prize they could take one of the toasters home -- and everybody chose white, stainless steel or black.

Quoted post unavailable.

They obviously mean "natural" stainless steel finish.

The name of the color would be silver, but silver color is a wider range of colors, silver is also confusingly just the name of a metal which it is not, and also would include "silver paint on top of stainless steel".

Re: Has the world become less colourful?

#52

Post by willis936 »

avar wrote: post #49

It's interesting to think about examples where we've been moving to a better world, or more rational choices based on these seemingly more boring color selections, or where external factors are driving them: 1. White as a car color is much more practical in any place that gets a lot of direct sun. In e.g. South Africa you might drive around all day and not see anything except white cars. In Western and Southern Europ…

Ceramics have advantages in the kitchen and are often very vibrant.

Re: Has the world become less colourful?

#53

Post by avar »

maest wrote: post #48
avar wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

GP clearly meant the gray colour common for stainless steel objects: https://im01.itaiwantrade.com/f741c34e-0130-464b-a4d0-1607a2...

Stainless steel as darker than that, and typically "brushed". That's chrome.

In any case, many people might have a vague idea that stainless steel is more durable, but not be able to tell the difference between stainless steel, chrome painted hard plastic, or galvanized steel. I wonder if the study accounted for that.

Re: Has the world become less colourful?

#54

Post by CalRobert »

thoweriu34234 wrote: post #3

It's not just colours. The world rapidly turning into a real-life "borg-world": same kinds of buildings; same kinds of dresses; same kinds of "world models; same philosophies; and now the same language too. The world is for all real purposes has been gobbled up by the Anglosphere. It's all but dead; I'm sure many people realize how drab and low-entropy our world is today.

Growing up my family and I would look at new developments on the edge of town and lament that all the cookie-cutter houses looked the same.

I did a self-build on a house in 2021 and the county planners insisted I had to make the house blend in with the existing ones. There was no room for creativity.

For an age we're we've made progress in personal freedoms we seem pretty hell-bent on forcing conformity.

Re: Has the world become less colourful?

#55

Post by andylynch »

aussieshibe wrote: post #50
stuartleigh wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As somebody who has recently renovated their kitchen and bathroom, it's not that I thought potential buyers would prefer white over a colour, it's just that I thought they were less likely to NOT like white over my preference of colour, and then either be put off, or feel like "this house is perfect but we'd have to redo the bathroom right away because I can't stand the pink" and then offer less.

This comment reminds me of one of my favourite Mitchell and Webb sketches: https://youtu.be/nWoWHzq21tA

If anything that was an under-reaction.

Re: Has the world become less colourful?

#56

Post by junga »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #38
thematrixturtle wrote: post #34

There is a famous if possibly apocryphal study where random people were asked to rate various toaster colors, and everybody swooned over lime green and hot pink and whatnot. After they finished, they were told that as their prize they could take one of the toasters home -- and everybody chose white, stainless steel or black.

The reason for that seems obvious to me. Grey, steel, white and black will work in basically every kitchen. If you want a more colorful pallet in any room in your house, then you need to put a lot more thought into planning it. I think most people aren’t highly motivated to do that.

> I think most people aren’t highly motivated to do that.

But they were in the past? I don't know but I wonder why this might have changed.

Re: Has the world become less colourful?

#58

Post by antman »

thematrixturtle wrote: post #34

There is a famous if possibly apocryphal study where random people were asked to rate various toaster colors, and everybody swooned over lime green and hot pink and whatnot. After they finished, they were told that as their prize they could take one of the toasters home -- and everybody chose white, stainless steel or black.

One could argue that those are two different questions. E.g. what would look nice on itself vs what would look good in your kitchen or might be more timeless

Re: Has the world become less colourful?

#59

Post by rvba »

avar wrote: post #49

It's interesting to think about examples where we've been moving to a better world, or more rational choices based on these seemingly more boring color selections, or where external factors are driving them: 1. White as a car color is much more practical in any place that gets a lot of direct sun. In e.g. South Africa you might drive around all day and not see anything except white cars. In Western and Southern Europ…

You ignore one more thing: white cars are popular because they are often the cheapest. You need to pay more for most color options -> so in poor countries people choose the cheapest model (white paint can be useful in a desert, but in most environments it is harder to clean). Even "boring" colors like silver or black can require an additional fee.

Companies often choose white cars as well for their fleets: you can easily put a big company logo on a white car - and it will probably look good.

I bet lots of people would choose different colors, if this didnt require to pay additional 1000-2000 dollars. (Also again practicality comes to mind: if you buy a car in an uncommon color you will have problems to get spare parts). This additional fee might be not much for a software developer from Silicon Valley who earns 300k per year, but is a big thing for most of the world.

As far as I know, when you want a non-standard color, for many cars it is cheaper to partially disassemble the body and wrap it in those plastic stickers than to ask the factory to paint it (not to mention that it will take few months before you get your car delivered, why you probably want it now). Only a small section of people does this though.

I bet if the prices of uncommon colors were lower, one could see much more unusual cars.

In fact in some ways the manufacturers are the ones who set the palette (probably based on market research), some colors come in unusual colors straight from the factory. So you 'have' to choose the fancy color, since the car does not come in boring ones. Or at least the unusual color is cheaper (few hundred dollars -> still a lot for many people). For example every now and often a manufacturer comes out with some variant of orange, or orange-red: https://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2021/12/orange-cars-you-...

In many ways car color is an illusion of choice: if you dont want to pay 2k dollars and wait few months, you have to take one of the boring colors that are available on the lot for you -> and those 'boring' were selected by the manufacturers, since their market research showed that they will sell. Tons of people cant afford to pay more to have a car that looks different. But judging by the amount of stickers you see on cars, perhaps they would.

Re: Has the world become less colourful?

#60

Post by Freak_NL »

stuartleigh wrote: post #27
ThePadawan wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be a self-perpetuating problem. Maybe people prefer (red, green, bright blue), but they fear that they won't be able to sell their car because of its color. So they buy white. (I read somewhere [so take this with a grain of salt] that this effect happens with marble kitchen countertops: not that many homeowners actually like them, but they believe that potential buyers might, so an overproportional amount of…

As somebody who has recently renovated their kitchen and bathroom, it's not that I thought potential buyers would prefer white over a colour, it's just that I thought they were less likely to NOT like white over my preference of colour, and then either be put off, or feel like "this house is perfect but we'd have to redo the bathroom right away because I can't stand the pink" and then offer less.

When I redo a room it gets the colours we like. I don't care about the next owner of the house beyond keeping the house well maintained and gradually improving things like insulation and wiring. Don't like a colour? Change it after the sale.

As it is, the housing market in the Netherlands is completely overheated (seller's market due to a housing shortage), so I could paint every room hot pink and it won't affect the price one bit, but even when that settles down I won't choose boring colours just to push up the price a few thousand Euro.

My kitchen: red walls matched with off white cabinets and shelving; living room: bespoke teal wall filling book case matched with patterned wallpaper (in grays) and an oxblood red sofa and seat (a complimentary colour to the teal); and so on.

I have to live in it and maximizing the joy I get from my house is important to me.

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