This might have been a topic years ago, but Jackwraith's terrific article on DoaM games made me think about what colors we try to use and why. I know that I always pick red, for lots of reasons. Originally it was because it's my dad's favorite color. A lot of my favorite sports teams (OSU Buckeyes, Cleveland Indians, Cavaliers, Red Wings) use some form of red in their uniforms. Actually it's also my wife's favorite color. When we first got married we had to devise a system for who would get it in which game. Well, my wife devised it. She now goes on what shirt we happen to be wearing. Luckily I have a lot of red shirts because of all those sports teams.
I can use other colors, but unless I have some kind of mnemonic device I will routinely grab for the red pieces without thinking. Orange is my second choice when it's offered, and I am willing to use green or black as well. The only one I don't use as a rule is yellow, because my brain just does not register that I'm yellow, and it'll gloss over all of my own pieces.
Black (to try and get a psychological edge - never works), then blue. I will admit that the choices may represent the colours of my two main sports teams ...
I generally choose yellow. It tends to be a color most don’t have a preference for, so I’ve made it a point to take it when I can. It offers no special abilities, and is hosestly a bit conspicuous. It’s flawed, like the person weilding it.
I take red about half the time, but there are plenty of other 'reds' out there, so like your wife's suggestion, I often go by my shirt color. I like taking inconspicuous colors like gray or white if they're available. But sometimes I'll also go right for purple or pink if I think it's something no one will take, and I guess they're not far from red.
Green is my favorite color, but I usually let everybody else pick first and take from whatever colors are left. Some games tie colors to specific factions, and I tend to be more interested in faction abilities than the color of their pieces.
I never really had a color unless Orange was in the mix, in which case I liked orange. But if someone else wanted it, that was fine. One player in my group is always Blue, there are a couple Yellows, and several Greens. I have lately defaulted to Red but again, I don't have any problem not being red if someone else wants it.
Friend of mine used to go for whatever blended into the board best.
Black is always my color.I'll opt for white if black isn't an option. I'm sure there is some correlation to black being the color of concert t-shirts or leather jackets.