For Valentine’s Day, Experts Say Wear Red
Posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 and is filed under Political & General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
The color red comes in handy for all sorts of things: warning, danger, alert. And even stop! Red’s also been the victim of clichés like “see red“-which means someone’s angry-or “roll out the red carpet,” pulling out all the stops (no pun intended). In addition, red has been a staple for Valentine’s Day, which is right around the corner. Red roses, red hearts, but does it all mean anything? Experts say it does.
Psychological research performed by experts from the University of Rochester state that the color red attracts men to women, something that men are unaware of.
“It’s only recently that psychologists and researchers in other disciplines have been looking closely and systematically at the relationship between color and behavior. Much is known about color physics and color physiology, but very little about color psychology,” said Andrew Elliot, a professor of psychology at the institution. “It’s fascinating to find that something as ubiquitous as color can be having an effect on our behavior without our awareness.”
In a series of experiments, the study looked at men’s responses to photos of women under a variety of color presentations, like a woman’s photo framed with either a border of red or white, and then the men answered a series of questions. Women who wore red shirts were also presented to the men, and they were asked about their attraction to them and dating. Repeatedly, women who wore red or were framed with red scored higher than even the exact same woman who did not wear red. The women who wore red were also more likely to be treated to an expensive dinner.
The “red effect” only extends to males, though, and not women rating other females. The experts concede that the effect of the color red on men’s behaviors can be from societal conditioning, but they feel that biological roots are more at work because research has shown that male primates are attracted to females who display “red,” like female chimpanzees and baboons when nearing ovulation. The authors note that the meaning of red depends on its context. In this case, the meaning has implications for dating, the fashion industry and product design and marketing.
