Both. There is a perception that’s 100% biological for sure. But lumping all the blue tones together, that’s social. Some languages (including Russian and Greek) have different words for light and dark blue, other languages have one word blue and green (sometimes translated as “grue”). Sure they can see the difference and name it (leave grue vs ocean grue for example) but socially, they perceive it as the same “color category”.
what i always find unsatisfying about this is that many languages say stuff like “lightblue”, it’s like 80% a separate word, but no one ever talks about how that affects perception.
I very much think of a different and fairly precise colour when someone says “ljusblå”
Colors are a social construct
Colors are a retinal construct
Both. There is a perception that’s 100% biological for sure. But lumping all the blue tones together, that’s social. Some languages (including Russian and Greek) have different words for light and dark blue, other languages have one word blue and green (sometimes translated as “grue”). Sure they can see the difference and name it (leave grue vs ocean grue for example) but socially, they perceive it as the same “color category”.
what i always find unsatisfying about this is that many languages say stuff like “lightblue”, it’s like 80% a separate word, but no one ever talks about how that affects perception.
I very much think of a different and fairly precise colour when someone says “ljusblå”
In Turkish it is “mavi” and “lacivert”. They are seen as different as yellow and orange.