Best male wears red

A truth universally known is that men find a lady in red alluring, but did you know women also find a guy in red attractive, even if they don’t know it?

Wearing the colour red or being boarded by a rosy hue makes men more attractive and sexually desirable to women according to new research from the University of Rochester – but women are oblivious to this effect.

“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,” said lead author Andrew Elliot, professor of psychology, “And it’s this high-status judgment that leads to attraction.”

Elliot showed 288 female and 25 male subjects – who were self-identified as heterosexual or bisexual – photographs of men in seven different experiments and asked them how attractive the person was.

In some experiments the colour of the man’s shirt was varied, while in others simply the boarder of the photo was altered from white to red. Participants rated that pictured man’s status and attractiveness and reported on their willingness to date, kiss or engage in sexual activity with the person. They also rated the man’s general likability, kindness and extraversion.

The researchers found the red effect was limited to status and romance – red made the man seem more powerful, attractive and sexually desirable, but not likable, kind or sociable. The effect was consistent across cultures with participants in the US, England, Germany and China finding the men wearing or boarded in red most attractive – but only to women. Males asked to rate the attractiveness of the photographed man were not swayed colour.

“We typically think of colour in terms of beauty and aesthetics,” said Elliot, “But colour carries meaning as well and affects our perception and behaviour an important ways without performance.”