Boys like blue. Girls like pink. We can't help it! It's in our genes.

Researchers from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have concluded that women prefer reddish colors because evolution has taught us to associate these hues with riper fruit and healthier faces, helpful information when you're gathering berries for dinner to take back to the cave while the husband is out spearing a mastodon. Even though survival instincts no longer require women to prefer pink over other colors, evolution is tough to overcome.

Previous research has shown there is a universal preference for blue, but until now there has not been much evidence to support a gender-based preference for a specific color.

The study: Using a computer in a dark room, 208 men and women were asked to view 1,000 pairs of colored rectangles that displayed numerous variations of shade, hue and saturation. They were instructed to choose as quickly as possible the colored cards they liked best. The results were then plotted along a color spectrum.

The results: Men preferred blue, while the women gravitated to the pinker end of the blue spectrum. "Women have a very clear pattern. It's low in the yellow and green regions and rises to a peak in the purplish to reddish region," lead study author and neuroscientist Anya Hurlbert told Reuters. She thinks women's preference for pink evolved on top of the universal preference for blue. "When you add it together, you get the colors they intrinsically like. You get bluish red, which is sort of lilac or pink," she added.

Hurlbert has a whole new take on Adam and Eve. Just think! Maybe there was a different reason Eve plucked that apple out of the tree. "Red was the color of a good ripe fruit," Hurlbert said.

The study findings were published in the journal Current Biology.

--From the Editors at Netscape