How to Seduce Using the Color Red
Men like women who
wear red.
It’s as simple as
it sounds.
How We’re Framed
Researchers from
Loveawake dating site had participants
look at a woman’s photo. The frame was either red or another color.
Participants were then asked the question: “How pretty do you think this woman
is?”
The results were
clear. Women framed by red were considered definitively more desirable.
A subsequent study
went one step further: it found that men were willing to spend much more money
on a woman who was wearing red. Men were also more likely to ask intimate
questions and sit next to women in red.
Social Conditioning?
Dating back to our
earliest days, humans have been programmed to appreciate the color red. To the
hunter-gatherers, red had magical properties. Ancient people often streaked
their bodies with red ochre to protect against danger.
In subsequent
centuries, red clothing signified a person’s nobility. The ancient Roman elite,
called coccinati, were
quite literally the “men who wore red.”
In particular,
there has been a profound association between ‘red’ and ‘love’ (just pick
up The Scarlet Letter). In Ancient Greece, the red rose
signified Aphrodite (today, Greek brides still wear red). In Europe, the red
apple in Snow White represented temptation and lust. And in
Hollywood, red continually symbolizes sex, sin, and box-office success—from
Pretty Woman to The Woman in Red to the new, hyper-sexualized Red Riding Hood.
What’s going on?
Has years of conditioning turned us into drooling, Pavlovian dogs at the sight
of red?
Social
conditioning certainly seems to be at the heart of female attraction
toward the color. Professor Andrew Elliot from the University of Rochester
said, “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.”
Biological Basis
There is, however,
an evolutionary basis to the love of red.
Nonhuman primates
are also drawn to the color. Female chimps turn red when ovulating—a signal
that they are ready to mate. Red increases amorous behavior in male primates,
as evidenced by data showing increased mounting attempts.
“Our findings
confirm what many women have long suspected and claimed,” said the
psychologists at University of Rochester, “that men act like animals in the
sexual realm.”
The Red Zone
So, on your next
date, just think red: cherries, rosé, lipstick, the Red Sox, Santa hats, fire
extinguishers, and London phone booths.
But remember,
‘red’ might get your foot in the door, but it’s going to take some other
qualities to get you the rest of the way. Kindness, loyalty, intelligence,
humor—now those will really give you some color.
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