Romantic red: Red enhances men's attraction to women.

TLDR

In many nonhuman primates, the color red enhances males' attraction to females. The authors show that, like in primates, wearing or viewing red makes men rate women as more attractive and sexually desirable—a bias they are unaware of and that does not alter women's own perceptions—highlighting practical implications for mating, fashion, and cross‑species signal research.

Abstract

In many nonhuman primates, the color red enhances males' attraction to females. In 5 experiments, the authors demonstrate a parallel effect in humans: Red, relative to other achromatic and chromatic colors, leads men to view women as more attractive and more sexually desirable. Men seem unaware of this red effect, and red does not influence women's perceptions of the attractiveness of other women, nor men's perceptions of women's overall likeability, kindness, or intelligence. The findings have clear practical implications for men and women in the mating game and, perhaps, for fashion consultants, product designers, and marketers. Furthermore, the findings document the value of extending research on signal coloration to humans and of considering color as something of a common language, both within and across species.