Summarizing Empirical Scientific Articles

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

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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. Psychology 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 Psychology, 95, 1150–1164.

Guéguen N. (in press). Color and women hitchhikers’ attractiveness: Gentlemen drivers prefer red. Color Research and Application.

Hatfield, E. (1983). What do women want from love and sex? In E. R. Allgeier & N. B. McComick (Eds.), Changing boundaries (pp. 103–134). Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co.

Koukounas, E., & Letch, N. M. (2001). Psychological correlates of perception of sexual intent in woman. The Journal of Social Psychology, 141, 443–456.

Lee, Y. (2006). Man as the prayer: The origin and nature of human kind. NewYork, NY: Trafford.

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Levesque, M. J., Nave, C. S., & Lowe C. A. (2006). Toward an understanding of gender differences in inferring sexual interest. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30, 150–158.

Neto, F. (2002). Colors associated with styles of love. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 94, 1303–1310.

Niesta Kayser, D., Elliot, A. J. and Feltman, R. (2010), Red and romantic behavior in men viewing women. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 901–908.

Roberts, S. 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 Psychology, 52, 730–738.

Shotland, R. L. & Craig, J. M. (1988). Can men and women differentiate between friendly and sexually interested behavior? Social Psychology Quarterly, 51, 66–73.

Received January 28, 2011 Accepted July 11, 2011

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