Elekdag-Turk, Ozkalayci, Isci, Turk able colors. The detailed age- and gender-wise distributions of color preferences are shown in Tables 7 and 8. dIscussIon Gender has been shown to influence color preferences.2 While females prefer red–purple- colored tones, males prefer blue–green-colored tones.2 Neuroscientists Hurlbert and Ling2 sup- ported the view that color preferences among the sexes have a biological basis, i.e., an evolutionary basis, rather than a cultural basis. The results of Alexander’s study3 implied that females prefer reds since their eyes are attuned to perceive reds better than the other colors. This finding supports Hurlbert and Ling’s idea of an evolutionary basis for color preferences. Nevertheless, researchers at Princeton University suggest that color prefer- ences are influenced by a combination of biologi- cal and cultural biases.4 Table 3. Color distribution of colorful elastic ligatures. However, in the present study, the differenc- es between the color preferences of female and male patients were not significant. While female patients showed a slightly higher preference for colorful elastic ligatures, male patients showed identical preferences for colorful and less-no- ticeable elastic ligatures. Among the ligatures with less-noticeable colors, transparent ligatures were preferred by both female and male patients. In fact, the preferences for transparent ligatures were almost equal among female and male pa- tients: 36.3% for female patients and 37.9% for male patients. Detailed analysis of the prefer- ences for colorful ligatures showed that female patients usually preferred lilac, pink, lime, purple, and light blue ligatures. In contrast, male patients usually preferred blue and black ligatures. Another notable finding in this study was that fire-red ligatures were chosen by both female and male patients. While the preference for red Number Percentage (colorful ligatures) Percentage (all elastic ligatures) Color Fire Red Lilac Yellow Blue Pink Lime Purple Black Light Blue Various Transparent Color White Pearl Silver Elastic ligature Colorful Less-noticeable April 2010 - Vol.4 Table 4. Color distribution of less-noticeable elastic ligatures. Number Percentage (colorful ligatures) Percentage (all elastic ligatures) Table 5. Relationship of gender and color preference.* Table 6. Relationship of age and color preference.* * Percentages show the distribution for each gender. χ2 = 2.668, P=0.102 * Percentages show the distribution for each age group. χ2 = 53.947, P<.001 24 29 11 33 59 20 11 20 34 35 184 19 4 17 Gender Female 194 (57.7%) 142 (42.3%) Male 82 (50.0%) 82 (50.0%) 8.7 10.5 4.0 12.0 21.4 7.2 4.0 7.2 12.3 12.7 82.1 8.5 1.8 7.9 Elastic ligature Colorful 173 11.8 4.8 5.8 2.2 6.6 4.0 2.2 4.0 6.8 7.0 36.8 3.8 0.8 3.4 Age 16-20 ≤15 ≥21 142 (72.1%) 116 (50.9%) 18 (24.0%) Less-noticeable 55 (27.9%) 112 (49.1%) 57 (76.0%) European Journal of Dentistry