Guegen2012ColorandAttractiveness.pdf

The Journal of Social , 2012, 152(3), 261–265

Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

REPLICATIONS AND REFINEMENTS

Color and Women Attractiveness: When Red
Clothed Women Are Perceived to Have

More Intense Sexual Intent

NICOLAS GUÉGUEN
Université de Bretagne-Sud

ABSTRACT. Research has shown that with some nonhuman primates, red is associated
with greater sexual attractiveness of females, and recent studies found that woman with
red clothes increases attraction behavior in men. However, the mechanism that explains
such behavior was not studied. In this experiment, we hypothesized that men overestimated
women’s sexual intent when wearing red clothing. Participants evaluated attractiveness and
the sexual intent of a woman presented in a photograph wearing a red, a blue, a green or a
white tee-shirt. It was found that men evaluated higher sexual intent in the red clothing con-
dition. It was also found that perception of the woman’s sexual intent was not moderated
by attractiveness rating.

Keywords: attraction, evolutionary psychology, impression formation, perceptions,
physical attractiveness

STUDIES HAVE FOUND THAT RED increases the physical and sexual
attractiveness of women. Elliot and Niesta (2008) found that by varying the color
surrounding a photo representing women, red, as opposed to white, green, grey,
blue, or green, led men (but not women) to view women as more attractive
and sexually desirable. Recent studies have also shown that romantic attraction
towards women is influenced by the color red. Niesta-Kayser, Elliot, and Feltman
(2010) showed that men who viewed an ostensible conversation partner in a red
versus a green shirt chose to ask her more intimate questions (Experiment 1) or
to sit closer to a woman with a red shirt rather than one in blue (Experiment 2).

Address correspondence to Nicolas Guéguen, Université de Bretagne-Sud, LSHS, 4, Rue
Jean Zay, BP 92116, Lorient 56321, France; [email protected] (e-mail).

261

262 The Journal of Social

Guéguen (in press) found that women hitchhikers wearing red solicited a higher
response in the number of male drivers who stopped to offer a ride. No color effect
was found when observing the behavior of female drivers.

In the previous study focused on men’s approach towards women wearing
red, red was perceived as a non-lexical prime that influenced reproduction-
relevant behavior in like manner across species: red increased women’s physical
and sexual attractiveness, which led in turn to an increase in men’s behavior.
However, it could also be argued that women wearing red might be perceived
to have greater sexual intent, which is why men approach them. Indeed if red is
associated with lust, sex, and romantic love in human culture (Neto, 2002), one
could argue that a woman wearing red would be sending a signal to men that
she desires sex or a date. We therefore hypothesized that women in red would be
perceived to have greater sexual intent.

Method

Participants

The participants were 120 male undergraduate business students, ranging in
age from 18 to 21 (M = 19.2, SD = 1.35).

Procedure and Materials

Participants were randomly assigned to one of four between subject color
conditions: red, blue, green, and white (n = 30 in each condition). They were
informed that the experiment was to study how men judged photographs repre-
senting women. They were told they would only be shown one photo of a young
woman. The experimenter then gave each participant a manila folder containing
the photo of a 20-year-old woman. The female photo was 4” × 6” and portrayed
the head and upper torso of a moderately attractive woman. She wore a tee-shirt
and was smiling. The color was manipulated by varying the color of the tee-
shirt with the help of the Adobe Photoshop software. The photo was printed on a
special paper with an HP Photosmart Pro B 9180.

Participants were instructed to open the folder and to look at the photo for
30 seconds. When time had elapsed, the participant was instructed to complete a
questionnaire that contained a perceived attractiveness measure as well as sexual
intent of the target and several demographic items. Perceived attractiveness was
assessed on a scale of 1 (not at all attractive) to 9 (extremely attractive) which
measured “How attractive do you think this woman is?” whereas sexual intent
was assessed on a 1 (no probability) to 9 (high probability) scale which measured
“How likely would this woman be to have sex with a man on the first date?” After
completing the questionnaire, the participant was fully debriefed and dismissed.

Guéguen 263

Results

A between-groups ANOVA was performed on the two dependent variables.
Means and variances for these ratings for each of the four groups are presented in
Table 1.

With the attractiveness rating, a main effect was found (F (3, 116) = 4.27,
p = .007, η2 = .08). Post-hoc comparisons revealed that red was different from
blue and green, whereas no further statistical difference was found. Concerning
the woman’s sexual intent, a main effect was found (F (3, 116) = 10.71,
p = <.001, η2 = .16). Post-hoc comparisons revealed that red was different from white, blue, and green, whereas no further statistical difference was found. To control the effect of attractiveness on sexual intent, an ANCOVA was performed, with color as the independent variable, sexual intent as the dependent variable and attractiveness as the continuous co-variable. The effect of color on sexual intent remained significant: F (3, 113) = 6.14, p = .007, η2 = .13. Discussion The results from the experiment support our hypothesis. Men who viewed a woman dressed in red as opposed to one in green, blue, or white perceived her to be more attractive and to have more sexual intent. It was also found that the effect of color on sexual intent was not moderated by attractiveness. Studies have shown that red is connected to lust and romantic love (Neto, 2002), as well as to female fertility (Lee, 2006). Associating red with sex and romantic love is perhaps explained by societal conditioning. However, biologi- cal evolution could also explain the importance of redness. During their fertility phase, the perineum of female baboons, macaques and chimpanzees become red probably to attract males (Deschner, Heisterman, Hodges and Boesch, 2004). Roberts and colleagues (2004) found that women’s faces or bodies in their fertile phase become redder because of an increase of vascularization of these areas. Whether these effects are explained by evolutionary considerations (red as a visual indicator of sexual receptivity) or by cultural conditioning (the association TABLE 1. Mean (SD in Brackets) of the Attractiveness and Sexual Intent Ratings According to Color Condition White Red Blue Green Attractiveness 5.12 (1.08) 5.95b (1.24) 5.07a (1.19) 4.93a (1.37) Sexual intent 4.34a (1.29) 6.28b (1.96) 4.67a (1.47) 4.40a (1.32) Note: Mean with different letters are statistically different using the Bonferroni correction to adjust for multiple comparisons. 264 The Journal of Social of red with sex and romantic love) they could help us to understand why men attribute more sexual intent to women wearing red lipstick. In both cases, red appears as a possible indicator of receptivity and probably explains why men were more ready to approach a woman displaying red on her body or to conclude that they had more sexual intent when they wore red. Guéguen (in press) found that women hitchhikers wearing red solicited a higher response in the number of male but not of female drivers who stopped to offer a ride. It could be argued that men stopped more often because they attributed more sexual intent to these female hitchhikers. Previous research has found that males are more likely than females to perceive interactions in sexual terms or to make sexual judgments and that they are more eager for sexual intercourse than women are (Clark & Hatfield, 1989; Hatfield, 1983; Sadalla, Kenrick & Vershure, 1987). They are also more likely to overestimate the sexual interest of women (Abbey, 1987; Shotland & Craig, 1988; Levesque, Nave & Lowe, 2006), which they frequently misinterpret based on their clothing. Abbey (1987) found that males were more likely than females to interpret a low-cut top, shorts, tight jeans, or no bra as an indication of sexual receptiveness. Koukounas and Letch (2001) found that an actress who wore more revealing clothing was perceived by male observers as having more sexual intent than by the female observers. For the first time, our experiment shows that red clothes have the ability to lead men to perceive a woman wearing a red tee-shirt as having greater sexual intent than one wearing a blue, white, or green one. AUTHOR NOTE Nicolas Guéguen is affiliated with the Université de Bretagne-Sud. REFERENCES Abbey, A. (1987). Misperception of friendly behavior as sexual interest: A survey of naturally occurring incidents. of Women Quarterly, 11, 173–194. Clark, R. D., & Hatfield, E. (1989). Gender differences in receptivity to sexual offers. Journal of Personality & Human Sexuality, 2, 39–55. Deschner, T., Heistermann, M., Hodges, K., & Boesch, C. (2004). Female sexual swelling size, timing of ovulation, and male behavior in wild West African chimpanzees. Hormones and Behavior, 46, 204–215. Elliot, A.J. & Niesta, D. (2008). Romantic red: Red enhances men’s attraction to women. Journal of Personality and Social , 95, 1150–1164. Guéguen N. (in press). 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C., Havlicek, J., Flegr, J., Hruskova, M., Little, A. C., Jones, B. C., Perrett, D. I., Petrie, M. (2004). Female facial attractiveness increases during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. Biology Letters, 271, 270–272. Sadalla, E. K., Kenrick, D. T., & Vershure, B. (1987). Dominance and heterosexual attraction. Journal of Personality and Social , 52, 730–738. Shotland, R. L. & Craig, J. M. (1988). Can men and women differentiate between friendly and sexually interested behavior? Social Quarterly, 51, 66–73. Received January 28, 2011 Accepted July 11, 2011 Copyright of Journal of Social is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.