The dumbest survey ever names NJ’s favorite, most Googled color
A pointless new study proves there’s nothing left to study.
When I first read the headline to the study, I thought to myself, “this must be a headline from The Onion,” the satirical magazine that likes to poke fun at every dumb thing that happens in this country. But then I realized, no. It's actually a real study with real research.
Somebody actually commissioned a study to find out what the favorite color is in different states. How do they measure that? By how many Google searches there are for that particular color. If you’re still reading, you’re kinda curious, right?
Something about it, I have to admit, is nigglingly interesting.
First, let’s get this spoiler outta the way: Pink is New Jersey's most popular color.
Here’s the story: pixlr.com is an editing website that for some reason decided to analyze
Google searches for 22 different colors (excluding black and white) combined with 25 different color-related terms that describe clothing, décor and themes.
Red came out on top as 30 states' favorite color, while pink was the second most popular, topping the color searches in 12 states. Doesn’t say much for us that we have the same favorite color as almost everyone else. I thought we were more creative than that. I’d be proud of us if we were searching for puce.
On the other hand, maybe there’s an explanation. Something about living in a populous state seems to make it more likely that you will search pink.
For instance, populous states like California, New York, and Texas also Googled terms like “pink flowers” and “pink aesthetic” as much as we did.
Pink was followed by blue in third as the most popular in six states, and finally brown in
the remaining two states.
Now some info about the most commonly googled color: red.
The 30 states that are Googling red items the most include Connecticut, New Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii, Utah and Wisconsin. That seems like a very diverse group of states, so I have no idea what they might have in common.
The popular searches include “red hair”, “red dress” and “red wallpaper” and “red background”.
If you’re looking for a political angle, (and if you live in this state, you probably are) here’s the tie-in.
Each state’s favorite color was measured against its political preferences and found that of the 26 states whose Electoral College votes went to Republican candidate Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, 14 also had red as their most Googled
color. (I know, you’d think it would have been orange, right?)
Those states included Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, and Utah. Meanwhile, Illinois and Minnesota were the only states that voted Democrat in 2020 and have blue as their most Googled color.
Should we think about this and what it means for us as a society?
What do we make of this?
Do these results provide some amazing psychological insights into who we are as Americans? Or does this prove that there is literally nothing left to research?
I fear it may be the latter.
Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco only.
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