While a rose by any other name might well smell as sweet, turns out that merely wearing the color red or being bordered by the rosy hue makes a man more attractive and sexually desirable to women, according to a series of studies by researchers at the University of Rochester and other institutions.
Better yet (from the guy’s perspective, anyway) - women are apparently unaware of this arousing effect – which, sorry ladies, apparently only works one way.
Red’s influence ultimately lies in its ability to make men appear more powerful, says lead author Andrew Elliot, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. "We found that women view men in red as higher in status, more likely to make money and more likely to climb the social ladder. And it's this high-status judgment that leads to the attraction," Elliot said in a press release about the study.
The Study
To quantify the red effect, the paper analyzed responses from 288 female and 25 male undergraduates to photographs of men in seven different experiments. Participants were all self-identified as heterosexual or bisexual. In one color presentation, participants looked at a man's photo framed by a border of either red or white and answered a series of questions, such as: "How attractive do you think this person is?"
Other experiments contrasted red with gray, green, or blue. Colors were precisely equated in lightness and intensity so that test results could not be attributed to differences other than hue, according to the report.
In several experiments, the shirt of the man in the photographs was digitally colored either red or another color. Participants rated the pictured man's status and attractiveness, and reported on their willingness to date, kiss, and engage in other sexual activity with the person. They also rated the man's general likability, kindess, and extraversion.
Interestingly enough, the researchers found that the red effect was limited to status and romance: red made the man seem more powerful, attractive, and sexually desirable, but did not make the man seem more likable, kind, or sociable – and this effect was found to be consistent across cultures: undergraduates in the United States, England, Germany, and China all found men more attractive when wearing or bordered by red.