Color preference and food choice among children.

The effects of color on children's food choices were investigated. Subjects were 120 children who were equally distributed among each of the combinations of age (5 vs. 9 years old), sex (male vs. female), food type (3 types of candies), and color (red, green, yellow, and orange) in a counterbalanced, factorial, analysis-of-variance design with repeated measures on subjects. A significant main effect for color indicated that children preferred foods that were red, green, orange, and yellow, in that order. Interpretation of this main effect was not interfered with by main effects or interaction terms involving age, sex, or food type, which served as alternative rival hypotheses.