by Thalma Lobel
There was only one difference between the photos: half of the men saw the photo on a white background and the other half on a red background. The students were then asked to rate the attractiveness of the woman on a scale of 1 to 9. Men who saw the picture of the woman on a red background perceived her as more attractive than those who saw exactly the same picture on a white background.
In other words, seeing red influences personal attraction. We are strongly drawn to red, even though this effect is unconscious; the men had no idea that red was a factor in their decisions. They were all asked what they thought was affecting their perception most: the woman’s facial expression, the way she was dressed, or the color of the background. The students indicated that the color had the least influence on their decision. But, after all, we don’t always know what makes us tick.
The researchers were very thorough, conducting several more experiments to explore whether this effect of red could be universal. Participants in these experiments saw photos of different women with different physical traits, expressions, and clothing. They saw photos of blond women and brunette women; women who wore turtleneck sweaters and women who wore striped button-down shirts; women who were smiling and women who had a neutral expression. Sometimes the experimenters let the students study the photos for longer than five seconds. They compared the red background with gray, green, and blue backgrounds, as well as with white. In one experiment, instead of coloring the background of the picture, the researchers tinted the woman’s shirt red. They thought of nearly every way to challenge their findings, but the “red effect” held fast.
Because “attractive” and “sexy” are not the same thing, although they are related, researchers also asked the participants to rate the extent to which they thought the woman was sexually desirable. The men also had to rate how much they would like to engage in several sexual activities with her, such as making out and having sexual intercourse. In one experiment, the participants were asked to rate the extent to which they wanted to ask this woman out and how much of a hundred dollars they would spend on her on a date. In addition, participants were asked to judge the woman on criteria not related to physical attractiveness and sex, including likability and other positive qualities, such as how nice, honest, friendly, intelligent, and kind they believed she was.
Over and over and over again, the red effect on desire was consistent: participants perceived the woman in the picture with the red background as more attractive, more sexy, and more desirable; and they claimed to have greater intentions to have sex with her, to date her, and to spend more money on her. The alluring effect of red was present with all types of women. Blond or brunette, turtleneck or jacket, background or shirt color, it didn’t matter. Red affected the men’s judgments about the woman in the picture, causing them to perceive her as more sexually attractive, completely without their awareness.
It is interesting, however, that red had no effect on the men’s judgments of the woman’s likability or intelligence. Men did not perceive the woman with the red background as more (or less) nice, intelligent, or kind than the woman with a different-color background. Red influenced only their judgments of the woman’s attractiveness and their sexual attraction to her.
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Together with two of my students,I I decided to replicate and expand this study. First, we wanted to see if red would have an effect on Israeli men similar to the one it had on the American men who had been tested. Israeli culture is very similar to American culture, and so red has similar associations. Replicating studies, especially across cultures, is important because it validates the findings, but we also had another goal: to test the influence of red on men’s perceptions of women who were extremely attractive and of women who were below average in attractiveness. Yes, I know physical attractiveness is subjective, but there is some consensus about who is extremely attractive and who is unattractive. Media convey images of extraordinary beauties, but in the real world, not every woman is above average.
Elliot and his colleagues had studied women who were rated average, and, to determine who was considered average, they had conducted a pretest. They asked male participants (not those who later participated in their experiments with color) to evaluate the attractiveness of women in photos on a scale of 1 to 9, where 1 was not at all attractive and 9 was extremely attractive. For their actual experiments, they chose only photos of women who had been given a score around 6. So their conclusions about the influence of the color red apply only to moderately attractive women.
My students and I conducted a similar pretest. Based on its results, we chose photos of women who were perceived as moderately attractive, women who were perceived as below average in attractiveness, and women who were perceived as extremely attractive. We then presented fifty-eight Israeli male students with photos of these women, some of whom were shown on a green background and some on a red. Participants answered three types of questions on a scale of 1 to 9. Two questions were about the perceived attractiveness of the woman (“How pretty is this woman?” “How attractive do you think she is?”), two questions were about the sexual attractiveness of the woman (“How sexually desirable do you find this woman?”), and two questions were about the sexual intentions of the man toward the woman (“On a scale of 1 to 9, how much would you like to have sex with the woman in the photo?”). In addition, we asked how likable and intelligent the women seemed.
For the moderately attractive women, red had an effect on Israeli men similar to its effect on American men: Israeli men perceived moderately attractive women photographed against a red background as more attractive and more sexually desirable than women presented against a green background. In contrast, different results emerged for photos of women who were above or below average in attractiveness. Irrespective of background color, extremely attractive women were perceived as more attractive and more highly sexy than were women of below-average attractiveness. Men also reported being more eager to engage in sexual behavior with the attractive women than with the unattractive women, regardless of background color. Thus the across-the-board impact of red was felt in the middling zone of attractiveness, and not at the extremes.
However, when we isolated the attractive group and the unattractive group of women and then compared red and green backgrounds within each group, red had an effect only on the men’s sexual desire, not on their perceptions of the women’s attractiveness. In other words, although attractive women received higher all-around scores than unattractive women (for both green and red backgrounds), within each group, red enhanced the women’s sex appeal. Men wanted to have sex with attractive women more than with unattractive women regardless of background color; however, a red background color heightened their sexual desire for unattractive women, whereas they remained uninterested in unattractive women presented against a green background. Similarly, they desired sex with attractive women presented against a red background more than they did with attractive women against a green background.
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These findings suggest that red can influence our desires even when it does not influence our conscious evaluations. Even when men consciously evaluate women as extremely sexy and attractive (or relatively unattractive and not sexy), they are unconsciously influenced by the color red with regard to their willingness to have sex with the women.
While it’s not news that women’s physical appearance influences whether men find them attractive and sexy and how much men want to have sex with them, red also enhances—without our awareness—the desirability of women who are perceived as moderately attractive. The fact that red enhances the perceived attractiveness of moderately attractive women rather than the perceived attractiveness of those who are below or above average in attractiveness suggests that the effect of environmental factors is especially strong when other factors that influence our judgments and behavior are relatively weak. When a woman is very attractive, this attractiveness is the most salient factor in judging how attractive and sexy she is, a
nd the color of the background matters less. This is called a ceiling effect. If, on the other hand, the woman is moderately attractive, then the environmental factors have a stronger influence, and in this case red is more influential. The more ambiguous the situation, the stronger the influence of the environmental factors. So if the woman is moderately attractive, the situation is more ambiguous and environmental factors play a bigger part.
Even in relatively clear-cut situations, environmental factors have an effect on our more automatic, less cognitive reactions. When the women were extremely attractive or unattractive, red did not influence how attractive or sexy they were perceived to be, but it still influenced how much the men wanted to have sex with them. This is consistent with other findings about the influence of environment. For instance, warm temperature affects our judgments of people who are not exhibiting particularly warm or cold behavior. These results probably would not have been the same if the person had behaved in an extremely warm and friendly or extremely cold and unfriendly manner.
Recently Elliot and his colleagues examined whether the association between red and attraction is universal by conducting a study in a small, isolated rural community in Burkina Faso in West Africa.2 They presented a black-and-white photo of an African woman, enclosed within either a blue or a red border, to forty-two young men. The men were asked questions similar to those asked in previous studies conducted in the United States, Israel, and Europe regarding women in photographs. The men rated the woman presented with the red border as more attractive than the one presented with the blue border, and wanted more strongly to meet her and to court her. However, unlike the results in the Western cultures, the finding here was that West African men who saw the woman in the red frame did not say they desired her more than did the men who saw the woman in the blue one. So the association between red and attraction exists in isolated cultures, proving the universal nature of this link. Yet the study also demonstrates that the association between red and sexual desirability is culture specific.
Elliot and his colleagues wanted to see if the color red influences actual behavior and not just intentions and evaluations.3 Intentions often lead to actual behavior, but not always. We have all had intentions of doing something—we meant to call someone, write something, go somewhere, change somehow—but did not follow through. The psychologists invited male students to participate in an experiment about communication. Actually, it was an experiment that faked communication. Researchers told the students that there was a woman in the other room and that they would be shown each other’s photos: the participant would see the woman’s image, and the woman the participant’s image. But in fact there was no woman; the experimenter only showed each participant a photo of the head and torso of a woman who was moderately attractive. All participants received the same photo, but half received an image of the woman wearing a red T-shirt, while the other half saw a green T-shirt. This, again, was the only controlled difference in the experiment.
After showing the photo, the experimenter gave each participant a list of twenty-four questions and asked him to choose five that he wanted to ask the woman in the next room, which the experimenter would then take to the “woman.” Some questions were not intimate or daring, such as “Where were you born?” Some were moderate, and asked the woman where she usually hangs out. And some were quite daring, such as “What should a guy do in order to get your attention if he sees you in a bar?” The results showed that the participants who saw the woman in a red shirt asked her more intimate questions than did the participants who saw the same photo but with a green shirt.
The psychologists conducted a second experiment in which they showed each participant a photo of the same woman, but some saw her in a red shirt and some in a blue shirt. Supposedly, the students would meet her in the next room. After seeing the photo, participants were asked to go to the other room to talk with the woman, who would arrive after they were seated. Each participant was to take a chair and position it across from her empty chair. Again, there was no woman, but the experimenters measured the distance the men put between the chairs, and the results were impressively significant. Participants sat closer to the empty chair after seeing the photo of the woman in the red shirt than after seeing the one of the woman in blue. The romantic intentions of the men did indeed translate into intimate behavior.
A number of studies have sought to examine this link between red and attraction in real-life situations. One study checked to see whether waitresses who wore red were tipped more.4 For six weeks, experimenters observed eleven young waitresses working in five different restaurants in France. The waitresses did not know the purpose or hypothesis of the experiment but were instructed each day which color T-shirt to wear—red, black, white, yellow, blue, or green. The experimenters recorded the tips of 722 customers, males and females, who sat alone at a table.
The men (but not the women) tipped the waitresses who wore red more than those who wore any other color. The possibility exists, however, that although the waitresses were unaware of the purpose of the study, they nevertheless behaved differently when they wore red. We need new studies to investigate this question.
In another study, one of these researchers examined whether a red T-shirt influenced drivers to stop for hitchhikers.5 Five young women wore different-color T-shirts and were asked to hitchhike and count the number of drivers who stopped for them. As in the waitress study, male drivers stopped more frequently when a woman was wearing a red T-shirt. Female drivers did not.
It seems that in real-life situations men are more attracted to women who wear red, even a simple T-shirt, than to women who wear any other color.
The attractiveness of red is common to many other primates. Recently a group of researchers presented male rhesus macaques with various faces of females on a computer screen.6 Some of the faces were pale, and some were red. The researchers measured the time that the male monkeys spent gazing at each face. They found that the males gazed longer at red faces than at pale ones and concluded that the color red is a factor in attraction. This experiment is especially interesting because this behavior of the monkeys was studied not in the wild but in a controlled setting, the same way that we psychologists study human beings. In fact, rhesus macaques are often used in studies because they are our close relatives.
Red-Letter Days
Red connects with strong instincts and powerful emotions. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel The Scarlet Letter, which takes place in a seventeenth-century Puritan village, Hester Prynne bears a child out of wedlock and is required to wear a piece of red cloth in the shape of the letter A every day. Why red? Literature classes have discussed the significance of this color choice for over a hundred years. Does it represent blood? Sin? The danger she poses to the community?
As this famous story suggests, and as we know from experience and from literature and film, red is a sexy color. Temptresses, the libertine Jezebels of literature, are usually depicted wearing red. Scarlett O’Hara’s name itself is red. Yet I doubt that most of us would have thought that simply changing the color behind a picture of a woman would strongly influence men’s judgments of the woman and influence their intentions toward her. Of course, the colors around you (even red) are not the ultimate factor in your choices or behaviors, just one of many. But the color red is worthy of respect. It is a serious influence, and being mindful of it will help you work with its effects.
In everyday life, in the eternal question of what to wear if you are a woman and you want to look sexy, red is your scientifically approved go-to color. A red blouse or a red hat will make you stand out in a crowd, but so will a less conspicuous red item, such as a scarf, a ribbon, lipstick, or even a red T-shirt over blue jeans. Red can be overused, like adding too much spice to food. It’s also helpful to know when not to wear red, when such a signal is inappropriate. When you are planning to go to any kind of meeting, whether business, social, or romantic, you might well ask yourself, “How do I want to be perceived
?” and decide accordingly on the color of your outfit. Then again, you might decide that you don’t really much care how you are perceived and wear only what you like and what makes you feel comfortable. Maybe the poets were almost onto something: roses are red, violets are blue . . . but ’tis color itself my mind loves about you.
Well-Red Men
Does red enhance the desirability of men to women? Sexy men are not necessarily portrayed wearing red shirts. The songs and movies are about a “lady in red” and a “woman in red.” There is no “man in red.”
Red is associated not only with sex but also with dominance, especially in the animal world. Studies with various types of animals have shown that red in males signals dominance, which is preferred by females for mating. When my friends and I were kids and went to the zoo, we thought the red rumps of some of the baboons were hilarious, but the red butt is serious; males, especially alpha males (and not females), display it as a symbol of status. Researchers from the United Kingdom found that the red color on the face, rump, and genitalia of male mandrills is a sign of dominance.7 When two males with similar red color encountered each other, there were more fights and aggressive behavior. When one of the males exhibited a stronger red color, however, he was clearly more dominant, and the less dominant male avoided him.
Red signals dominance in other types of animals too. In Sydney, Australia, researchers found that redheaded male morphs of the color-polymorphic Gouldian finch population are always the dominant birds.8 They are more dominant and aggressive than black-headed and yellow-headed morphs. Even artificial red signals dominance and influences the behavior of zebra finches, common birds in Australia. Researchers arbitrarily placed red or green bands on the legs of zebra finches and found that those with the red bands were more dominant.9 Animal studies have also shown that females prefer dominant red males. For example, the three-spined stickleback fish appears red during breeding season. Researchers found that the females preferred males with more intense red color.10
