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The color red awakens men's immodest fantasies
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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A woman's red dress evokes in men the same attraction that many primates experience when they see the reddened skin of a female ready to reproduce.
Red is a distraction and is believed to arouse immodest fantasies in men. Red is associated with a whole range of romantic experiences, from tender infatuation (red hearts on Valentine's cards) to wild and dangerous passion (red tight dresses on vamp women). But even if we do not take into account the use of red in films and other modern media in scenes with sexual overtones, we can say that women have known about this property of red since time immemorial.
It is believed that women have been blushing and tinting their lips red for 12,000 years. According to Adam Pazda, a psychologist at the University of Rochester (USA), there is an evolutionary meaning to this symbolism of red: in female primates during the breeding season, estrogen dilates blood vessels and stimulates blood flow, blood rushes to the skin on the face, and males understand that it is time to act.
To test this hypothesis in practice, the researchers conducted a simple experiment. Twenty-five men were shown a photo of the same girl, dressed in white or red. Her face was indistinguishable due to retouching. The subjects were asked to rate how much the girl was inclined to a romantic relationship.
As expected, the color red encouraged men to raise their expectations. The readiness for sex of a girl in red was rated 1–1.5 points higher than that of the same girl in white. The psychologists describe the results of the experiment in an article in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. The authors emphasize that the style of the outfit did not play any role: tight or loose, shirt or T-shirt - in any case, red was more arousing than any other color.
In general, the sexual attractiveness of the red color has now received strict scientific confirmation. However, it would be interesting to know how women themselves react to the red color. For some reason, it seems that for them it does not carry the same sexual overtones. One way or another, when men see a red dress, they need to realize that at this moment a distant primate ancestor awakens in them, which reacted to the reddened faces of females ready to reproduce. Although other scientists, recognizing the importance of the results obtained, still doubt the purely instinctive reasons for such a reaction. In order to cut off all the centuries-old cultural layers, according to skeptics, it would not hurt to repeat the experiment with people of another, non-European culture and preferably minimally affected by civilization.