Women's use of red clothing as a sexual signal in intersexual interaction

Abstract

Research on several non-human primate species has shown that females use red ornamentation as a sexual signal to attract male conspecifics. In the present research, we conducted two experiments designed to test an analogous use of red clothing by women in an intersexual interaction. In Experiment 1, women expecting to converse with an attractive man were more likely to choose to wear a red (versus green) shirt than women expecting to converse with an unattractive man or a woman of average attractiveness. In Experiment 2, women expecting to converse with an attractive man were more likely to choose to wear a red (versus blue) shirt than women expecting to converse with an attractive woman; red shirt choice was positively correlated with attractiveness and status perceptions in the former, but not the later, case. These findings contribute to both the literature on female sexuality and that on color and behavior.