Red and Black Make You More Attractive

Whether you like it or not, people judge you based on appearance. Color, in particular, speaks volumes.

Clothing colors can make skin look either healthy or sickly. Colors affect both the perceiver's and the wearer's psychology. The recent lab coat test experiment also supports this idea.

I recently stumbled upon this article in an evolutionary psychology journal. It provides evidence to support the theories of color/clothing psychology. You can read it for detail, but the main takeaways are:

1. Men and women wearing either black or red were perceived to be more attractive by the opposite sex. The increase in attractiveness was equal for both colors in both directions (i.e. males rating females and vice-versa). Statistically significant.

2. Men and women wearing black or red were perceived to be more attractive by the opposite sex and same sex (except in females rating females) even when the color of the clothing was unavailable to the raters (blocked out). This suggests that wearing a certain color can change the psychology of the wearer (i.e. increase attractive expressions and posture), which then raters could pick up on. Statistically significant.

So, wearing black or red will make others perceive you to be more attractive and will make you feel more attractive, which then causes you to produce attraction signals through non-verbal communication. However, there are a few caveats. Firstly, evolutionary psychology is riddled with errors and major biases so using this area of study to make claims is suspect. Also, this is a general trend and certain complexions should not wear red or black. For example, wearing black on darker skin will wash out your appearance.

Experiment with an all black outfit, which will convey power, authority, and mystery.