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Women See Colors Better
fenimor writes "The results of the study by researchers at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, suggests that natural genetic selection has provided women with a frequent ability to better discriminate between colors than men. 'Normally, this degree of genetic variation is suppressed through natural selection,' says Brian Verrelli, a researcher at ASU. 'In this case, nature is supporting a high degree of variation instead.' Because women have two X chromosomes, women can receive one chromosome with the typical configuration of the red vision gene while the other chromosome receives a slight variation. By contrast, men have one X chromosome, and any variation in the single red gene that they receive reduces their ability to distinguish between red and green."
This isn't really news - it's well known that women have better eyesight, and are less prone to colour blindness than men, all due to that X-Chromosome.
There was a story last year sometime (couldn't fine it, and was trying to find the article on Google - I'll try again and post a listing) where it claimed that someone women had an extra-sensitive sight for colours - especially shades of blue. Again, all due to them have 2 X-Chromosomes. One lady in the article was able to pick out a pair of shoes that were a perfect match for a dress she had purchased months back and was in her wardrobe since then.
Interesting stuff, but not really all that newsworthy, methinks.
T.
When I describe a color for my wife, she always corrects me, "That's not pink, that's peach!" or, "That's more of a seafoam green, Scott!"
Any man who is married & has gone paint shopping with his spouse knows exactly what I mean.
At least we now have a biological reason for our apparent color-blindness.
That explains why there are so many female master painters in the classical Western style, which uses subtle color variations to portray a scene in a very lifelike manner.
Rembrandt, being male, was obviously a hack.
My pet theory is that humans are selected that way because for millions of years as hunter-gatherers women did the gathering and men did the hunting. (Presumably, because it's harder to hunt with an infant, but it really doesn't slow down your gathering.)
Women would need to be able to distinguish fine colors to tell plant features apart (poisonous, spoiled). If you make a bad choice, your group might get sick. Whereas men don't really need to distinguish colors as finely because an antelope is an antelope no matter what shade it is.
A color-blind male won't hurt the group much. A color-blind (or handicapped) female would.
Get off my lawn.
I've taken this color blindness test myself and I have to say that I was shocked with the final results.
This is old news. Studies published in 2000 based on data from the early 90s have talked of the tetrachromat phenomenon. See this article. There is even a mention of it in wikipedia. Some people even think that all humans are blocked tetrachromats.