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There are couple of websites that claim that one's favorite color accurately predicts one's personality. For example; http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/personality-color.html

Given website makes statements such as;

If your favorite color is red, you are action oriented with a deep need for physical fulfillment and to experience life through the five senses.

I was wondering if there is truth in such statements.

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    Looks a lot like Forer effect to me!
    – nico
    Commented Feb 5, 2015 at 14:36

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This was a hot topic for some time in the late 1960's and early 1970's I think, with academic books like "The Luscher Color Test" (Luscher & Scott, 1971) being published. The Luscher Color Test being a personality test based entirely on color preference. This is probably what current online personality tests that use color preference are based on, but most of this old literature is not very easy to access.

More recent research by Rense Lange and Jason Rentfrow (2007) indicates that there is definitely a correlation between color preference and personality traits when you look at a large group of people. To some extent, it is possible to actually predict personality traits from color preference. Regarding color preference and the Sixteen Personality Factor questionnaire, Lange and Rentfrow state:

respondents’ color preferences provide powerful predictors of their personalities. The highest correlation is obtained for Factor H (Social Boldness).

So there is definitely some truth to the idea, but using only color preference is not optimal when trying to predict personality traits. It would be of more value as one predictor in a larger set of predictors, when trying to predict a person's personality somewhat accurately.
For more on this subject, see Color and Personality: Strong's Interest Inventory and Cattell's 16PF

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  • Could you elaborate a little bit? I think this answer goes in the right direction but it needs a little bit more... For instance you could link to some of that old '60 research, and maybe quote a few relevant passages from that recent paper.
    – nico
    Commented Feb 7, 2015 at 20:55
  • Good points. I added a quotation from the paper. I will try to find the older research online somewhere.
    – JP van Paridon
    Commented Feb 7, 2015 at 21:06

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