A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that men prefer women in red because of the color’s association with sex. Oh its all so primal and natural and not at all influenced by societal preferences and social conditioning! The study, which took place at the University of Rochester, consisted of showing men a picture of a “moderately attractive” woman and letting them basically play a version of “Hot or Not?”:

In some cases, the colour of the border framing the picture was changed, in other cases the colour of the woman’s blouse varied. Red, blue, green, grey and white were tested. In all cases, red was judged the most attractive.

The men were much more likely to ask out a woman wearing red. And they estimated they would spend almost twice as much on her as one in blue.

Despite the clear effect, the men insisted colour played little role in their choices, suggesting they were oblivious to the power of red.

It is surely not because red is often brighter than other colors or populalry associated with seduction and danger. People always ask us why we dress like a giant pair of labial lips when we go out to bars and our answer is always the same, “Read my lips: Because men like vaginas! They like things that look like vaginas. Vagina, vagina, vagina.”

See, let’s do an experiment. Which do you find less brain-meltingly annoying:

This?

Or this?

You’re in an annoyance-induced coma, aren’t you? Apologies.

Dressed to impress: Why the boys always fall for a lady in red [Daily Mail]