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What color makes you more attractive?
There is no simple equation to account for what attracts humans to one another. It’s complicated and there are many theories postulating that it is our subconscious mind that is responsible for many of the life-altering decisions we make, in particular those involving procreation.
What we do know is that attraction is multi-faceted and there are a vast number of elements that influence it, many of which we have little to no control over like our odor, facial symmetry, and for women, waist-to-hip ratio. However, there are elements of attraction that we can control, one of which, and the one we are focusing on in this post, is the color we wear.
So what color makes you more attractive to the opposite sex? Red – often referred to as the color of love, is also the color of physical attraction for both men and women (Elliot & Niesta, 2008). In a study conducted by Elliot and Niesta (2008), the authors found substantial evidence to support that wearing the color red enhances a woman’s attractiveness and sexual desirability in the eyes of men. This excerpt from the article illustrates this study’s discovery of the profound effect of color choices in fashion on attraction:
Men who viewed a woman in a red relative to a blue shirt perceived her to be more attractive, were more sexually attracted to her, and indicated a greater likelihood of asking her on a date and spending money on a date with her. – Elliot & Niesta, 2008, p. 1159
This is significant because it not only demonstrates how attractive a man views a woman based on the color she is wearing, but the way he treats her because of it.
In a later study that examined the perception of attractiveness of men wearing red, Elliot, Kayser, Greitemeyer, Lichtenfeld, Gramzow, Maier & Liu (2010) found evidence to support a similar finding to that of the aforementioned study. Women find men more attractive when wearing red compared to blue:
Women who viewed a man in a red, relative to a blue, shirt perceived him to be higher in status and to be more attractive, and they were more sexually attracted to him. – Elliot et al., 2010, p. 410
This finding is noteworthy because along with sexual attraction, the element of a man’s status is also affected by wearing the color red. This means that wearing red not only dictates how attractive women find men wearing that color, but it also affects men’s perceived social statuses.
The implications of these studies are profound. Wearing red increases physical attraction for both men and women. To appear more attractive to the opposite sex, wear red. To appear more sexually desirable, wear red. But more importantly, remember that no matter what color you wear feeling good about yourself is when you will feel the most attractive!
Shades of Red
Our Favorite Red Styles for Her
Our Favorite Red Styles for Him
REFERENCES
Elliot, A. J., Kayser, D. N., Greitemeyer, T., Lichtenfeld, S., Gramzow, R. H., Maier, M. A., & Liu, H. (2010). Red, rank, and romance in women viewing men. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139, 399-417.
Elliot, A. J., & Niesta, D. (2008). Romantic red: Red enhances men’s attraction to women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 115-1164.
