Exploring colour choice rank order and its relationship with heart rate variability

Abstract

This study collected data on colour choice rank using a 16-colour (Cernova) online test. The same participants undertook two well-known resilience questionnaires, and their heart-rate variability (HRV) was measured. Some studies have suggested a relationship between HRV and resilience. Key findings include: (1) Participants consistently showed distinct patterns in their first and last colour choices, with a strong preference for blue hues and lighter colours such as ‘light cyan’ and ‘light blue’. Brown was rarely chosen as the most appealing colour but was frequently ranked as the least appealing. Gender differences were noted, particularly with females showing a stronger preference for pink and purple than males. However, after adjusting for the unequal gender distribution and considering the complete ranking order, no significant gender differences were found. (2) In terms of colour choice and resilience, individuals with low resilience scores tended to select ‘black’ and ‘dark blue’ as their early choices, whereas the optimal resilience group with moderate scores chose ‘black’ later in the ranking. Those who with higher resilience scores tended to select ‘yellow’ early on. (3) Although the optimal resilience group showed higher HRV, no statistically significant differences were found in the HRV measures across the three resilience groups. Overall, these findings suggest that while colour choices may reflect resilience tendencies, the relationship between colour choices and HRV was not strong enough to reach statistical significance.