Colors and Figures in Senegal

Abstract

A sample of 2,500 primary school children and 943 secondary school children asked to name their favorite number (between 0 and 9) and their favorite color, gave as the primary school children's preference brown-five and that of the second group black-nine. These observations do not corroborate the 1941 findings of Eysenck, preference: blue for a larger but more heterogeneous sample that contained few Africans. Several interpretations of the phenomenon are discussed, including a greater awareness of school children of their cultural identity as they grow older, a sensitiveness to color and figures shaped by the culture, and mental traditions of the ethnic group to which they belong, etc.