Red “Tit-bits”!

A survey by dating website OkCupid found that women who wear red in their online dating profile photos are more likely to get messages and dates than those wearing any other colour. Careful though as lead author Dr Fangfang Wen wrote in a study, published in the journal, Evolutionary Psychology. that by choosing red, women are reflecting their sexual intentions ‘from the beginning’!

Psychologists at Central China Normal University, in Wuhan, China, showed 280 heterosexual students 32 pictures of the opposite sex and asked them to rate them according to how attractive they found them. These photos showed people wearing either blue, white or red. Male students found ‘feminine’ women wearing red the most attractive and also rated them highest for looking ‘warm’ and competent. ‘The colour red was shown to have a boosting effect on the sexual attractiveness of women with feminine facial traits,’ claims Dr Fangfang Wen

Scientists from the University of British Columbia in Canada, last year, claimed that women tend to wear red or pink when they are ovulating – the time of the month that they are at their most fertile – in a bid to attract a mate.

We know that red is synonymous with romance, passion, lust and fertility across nearly every long-standing civilisation, with males perceiving that they have a higher sexual opportunity when females adorn themselves in red! Other studies back this belief that red clothing also has a ‘marginally significant effect on men’s sexual attractiveness’. This may be because red can indicate higher status in some vertebrates and females evolve to prefer males that are high in status to provide for their babies. In addition, men are more attracted to women wearing red compared to other colours because they believe they are less likely to be rejected.

The Canadian research team claim that the colour red carries subtle but powerful messages about how receptive a woman might be to romantic advances and so men find it more alluring. Could this explain why women in red dresses have become such a provocative image in modern culture?.

When men were shown photographs of women wearing a red shirt they found them more attractive compared to when they saw the same women wearing green or white garments.

Another study, which tested 96 men from the United States and Austria, also found that the men felt the women would respond positively to their advances. Echoing Desmond Morris' belief, Adam Pazda, a social psychologist at the University of Rochester, in New York state, who led the research along with colleagues at the University of Innsbruck, said the response may be hangover from humans' evolutionary past, as animals such as female baboons display patches of bright red skin to indicate they are ready to mate.

He said: "We find it fascinating that merely changing the colour of a woman's shirt can have such a strong influence on how she is perceived by men.

"It is possible that women actually wear red clothing more when they are interested in sexual encounters. We are currently investigating this possibility, and preliminary evidence suggests that this is indeed happening."

It would appear that whether the studies have been carried out in Asia, Europe or the U.S.A., there is a resounding similarity throughout various studies, that men perceive women in red to be both attractive and more receptive!

Red is therefore a powerful communicator and it probably will benefit you to understand how to use it in the judicious way that you would choose!