By Colin Slickens
Original concept: A test to see the way candidates react to a simple task in an attempt to discover their concept of order, their reaction to colour and their creativity/originality
Task set: Order the six highlighters in any order of your choice
Highlighters in question: Stabilo Boss Original 70/6
Colours include: Yellow, Orange, Red, Pink, Green and Blue (There is some disparity between the purchaser’s view and the internet evidence of the original order of the highlighter pack, however this is the order that will represent the ‘original’ for the purposes of this investigation)
The greatest difficulty candidates had was in ordering the pink and the red, some candidates identifying them as the same colour during their first glance. Another common problem was the candidates’ ability to comprehend the task they were given, it being quite a general instruction, and many of them attempted to make the task more specific e.g. “Do you want me to do the order of the ones I like most to least?” Indecision was also an issue as candidates struggled to settle on their final order choice, sometimes not finding it as aesthetically pleasing as they had hoped for, other times being torn between two or more possible orders.
Data:
The data here shows that the most common reason behind the orders candidates chose was that it formed some sort of ‘rainbow’. This order tended to be PROYGB, although there were some variations with candidates either reversing this order or just swapping two colours around. One possible reason for the ‘backwards rainbow’ was given by a candidate who stated that it flowed better not having the similar pink and red at the beginning. It was the pink and red controversy that caused most of the variations between orders, and these were the colours that were swapped in two of the three ‘alternative rainbow’ orders. This accounts for the higher column at RPOYGB in Fig.1. Interestingly, both of the candidates who submitted this as their order are artists, which could account for their slightly different view of colours and shades. The only other ‘alternative rainbow’ order submitted was ROYGBP. This is fairly close to ROYGBIV, the traditional rainbow order taught in early education (usually as the acronym Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain) which could suggest the candidate may rely more on previous knowledge in new situations rather than making a spur of the moment decision.
The similarity between the pink and the red was a major factor in deciding the idiosyncratic order RBOYGP. This candidate explained that they had placed the offending colours as far apart as possible and the colours in between were aesthetically pleasing according to the colour spectrum. Having researched said spectrum, there is no definitive evidence that this order is regularly used and called a spectrum, however blue and orange are opposites on the colour wheel and orange, yellow and green are next to each other on the visible light spectrum. Therefore, some logic can be applied to this very individual order.
Another unique order from this investigation was YBGROP, which the candidate reasoned was ordered thus because of the numbers on the reverse side of the highlighters. Not all of the numbers were present; however the candidate put them in ascending order and was satisfied with finding an original and alternative way to approach the puzzle. This suggests that this candidate may have a more quantitative mind that defers to logic rather than simply visual appearance.
Two candidates decided to order the highlighters in a spectrum of brightness or lightness: one of them opted for darkest to lightest (BGRPOY) whilst the other chose brightest to darkest (YOPRGB). Despite having no communication with each other these candidates both produced the same order, just in reverse of one another, suggesting that this may be a less variable order. However, given that so few people chose it, this theory cannot be fully accepted as the sample size was not large enough to give any validity. Regardless of its lower popularity, the fact people did choose this order is significant when one considers that it is closest to the ‘original’ order that the highlighters were purchased in. Perhaps this explains the reasoning behind the marketing that had, until this point, seemed unfathomable due to the overwhelming popularity of the rainbow order.
Another two candidates who had a similar train of thought were those who used ‘most to least’ structures to order the highlighters. The first of these was the candidate who used the order of colours they like most to least. They presented this as RPBGOY. The unconventional red can be seen here again, placed at the forefront as the ‘most liked’ colour. This could suggest the candidate has a taste for the new and interesting, supported by the fact that the conventional yellow highlighter was right at the other end of the spectrum. The second of these candidates chose an order of most to least striking. Although this reasoning would suggest an outcome similar to the brightest to darkest order, the final product was in fact very different: ORYPBG. This is another particularly individual take on the ordering, showing once again the diversity of responses to this investigation.
The observation at the beginning of this document refers to some candidates having difficulty comprehending the task, and one candidate took this a stage further. They seemed physically unable to put their own opinion or creativity into the task, opting instead to move each of the highlighters as little as possible from the jumble on the table in order to maintain their randomness.This could suggest the candidate has some lack of confidence in their own ideas. Ironically however, this resulted in the completely original order of GRYBPO. This creates a sort of paradox as by thinking in a relatively uncreative way, this candidate’s results were one of the most creative and original as no one else repeated their thought process.
Although the ‘appealing groups and pairings’ reasoning shown in Fig.3 accounts for only two of the orders, ORPBGY and BGYORP, this approach was used by most if not all of the candidates in the early stages of their ordering process. They began by grouping the colours they liked together and formed their orders by connecting these groups. This suggests a shared level of rationality between most of the candidates, alongside a tendency to break down data to make it easier to process.
Conclusion and Evaluation:
It is difficult to draw conclusions from this investigation, as the data was collected from such a small sample size that didn’t represent a great variety of people, that it can’t realistically be used to prove anything. There is the additional problem that the candidates were all in different environments and many of them were influenced by other candidates. However, some conclusions can be drawn: firstly the enthusiasm with which most of the candidates took on this simple, yet highly visual and interesting task was unexpected and very much appreciated. This is not a serious psychological experiment, however it was the psychological element that seemed to be what people were most curious about and this shows how interesting these studies can be. Secondly, the unprofessional setup of this investigation allowed candidates to debate about the task, and many defended their orders with pride and determination and showed how opinionated people can be about even the smallest of things. Finally, the fact that no one chose the ‘original’ order the highlighters were purchased in could suggest that perhaps marketing should take a new approach in the future...? On the other hand, without this controversial initial highlighter order, this investigation wouldn’t have happened and none of these discoveries, however insignificant, would have been made so YORPGB is fine by me.
Thank you everyone who took part.
NOTE: We are not affiliated with Stabilo.
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