Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25920889›Full record

ArticleEvolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior2015

Human preferences for colorful birds: Vivid colors or pattern?

Silvie Lišková, Eva Landová, Daniel Frynta

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
22citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
1.7field-weighted citation impact, top 19% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. The link between colorfulness and extinction risk across the world's passerine birds.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Why Are Some Snakes More Terrifying and What Is Behind the Fear?Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Silvie LiškováNational Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic..
Eva LandováDepartment of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Praha 2, Czech Republic; National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic..
Daniel FryntaDepartment of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Praha 2, Czech Republic; National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic.
National Institute of Mental Health · CZ

Funding

PHS HHS ED2.1.00/03.0078
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In a previous study, we found that the shape of a bird, rather than its color, plays a major role in the determination of human preferences. Thus, in the present study, we asked whether the preferences of human respondents towards uniformly shaped, colorful birds are determined by pattern rather than color. The experimental stimuli were pictures of small passerine birds of the family Pittidae possessing uniform shape but vivid coloration. We asked 200 participants to rank 43 colored and 43 identical, but grayscaled, pictures of birds. To find the traits determining human preferences, we performed GLM analysis in which we tried to explain the mean preference ranks and PC axes by the following explanatory variables: the overall lightness and saturation, edges (pattern), and the portion of each of the basic color hues. The results showed that the mean preference ranks of the grayscale set is explained mostly by the birds' pattern, whereas the colored set ranking is mostly determined by the overall lightness. The effect of colors was weaker, but still significant, and revealed that people liked blue and green birds. We found no significant role of the color red, the perception of which was acquired relatively recently in evolution.

Indexed as

ColorColor PerceptionAnimalsBirdsChoice BehaviorEmotionsEstheticsFemaleHumansMalePhotic StimulationVision, Ocular

Identifiers

PMID25920889
PMCPMC10481088
OpenAlexW2122100292

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.