Two Day Magazine

According to a new multicultural study, men in red were more attractive to women. The researchers conducted seven experiments, including the effect of red and white on a man’s attractiveness. Women who looked at a picture of a man in red or surrounded by red rated them over one point higher on a nine point scale of attractiveness over those in white.

Red is the color that catches your attention. When someone wears red, often they project an energy of confidence, power and authority. Cultures across the world link the color red to fertility, sensuality, love and romance. Women in the US, England, China and Germany said that they found pictures of men in red or surrounded by the color to be more sexually attractive, and the results were consistent across the board.

The researchers believed that the color red appeals to its historic use as a symbol of status and wealth.

“In primitive societies, sacred objects were painted or coated in red to enhance their potency and convey a sense of great importance. In ancient China, Japan, and sub-Saharan Africa, red was viewed as a symbol of prosperity and high status. Classical Romans called the most powerful men ‘the ones who wear red’,” according to the study.

The women in the study also perceived that men wearing red were considered to have a higher social status or more likely to climb that social ladder to the top, according to Andrew Elliot, the lead author and professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. He believes that perception of high status leads to the attraction.

“Women’s romantic preferences are of great interest...and although the popular media often portrays female sexuality as a mystery, scientific research as revealed several factors that influence women’s attraction to men,” stated the study.

“The color only enhanced perceptions of status and romance, but did not make the man seem more likable and kind,” added the researchers.

What was even more interesting, however, was that this “red effect” was limited only to how women perceived men, not how men perceived one another. Color did not play a factor when men rated the appeal of another man.

The researchers concluded: “Color is typically thought of in terms of aesthetics alone, but it appears that the color can also carry meaning and impact the individuals’ psychological functioning...The role of color in intraspecific communication seems a promising and understudied area of research, one that we think will yield many provocative insights in the years to come.”

Wearing red sure worked for Tiger, after all. I have a feeling there will be a shortage of men’s red shirts at all department stores across the country for some time now...