The red dress effect is a
phenomenon
A phenomenon ( : phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried W ...
in which a woman wearing
red
Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...
clothing
Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...
, such as a red
dress
A dress (also known as a frock or a gown) is a garment traditionally worn by women or girls consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice (or a matching bodice giving the effect of a one-piece garment). It consists of a top piece that covers ...
, is perceived to be more
sexually appealing than she is when wearing other colours.
In primates, a visual indicator of female fertility occurs by way of
swelling during the follicular phase and is correlated with increased estrogen levels. It has been asserted that this effect acts
subconscious
In psychology, the subconscious is the part of the mind that is not currently of focal awareness.
Scholarly use of the term
The word ''subconscious'' represents an anglicized version of the French ''subconscient'' as coined in 1889 by the psycho ...
ly because participants rarely report that they used color in their attractiveness judgments. However, only one study has tested whether conscious awareness matters, with its findings casting doubt on this earlier speculation.
Hypothesis
![Proceedings_of_the_Zoological_Society_of_London_(9518378800)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Proceedings_of_the_Zoological_Society_of_London_%289518378800%29.jpg)
Evolution
A plant's
entomophilous flowers make a display when fertile to attract pollinating insects, bats, birds or other animals. In the wild, when many species of non-human
primate
Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...
females become
fertile
Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertilit ...
, their
estrogen
Estrogen or oestrogen is a category of sex hormone responsible for the development and regulation of the female reproductive system and secondary sex characteristics. There are three major endogenous estrogens that have estrogenic hormonal acti ...
level rises, which causes their
blood vessel
The blood vessels are the components of the circulatory system that transport blood throughout the human body. These vessels transport blood cells, nutrients, and oxygen to the tissues of the body. They also take waste and carbon dioxide away ...
s to open up, leading to
redness on the skin, especially near the face, chest and
genitalia
A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...
. The color display on some female primates is called
sexual swelling
Sexual swellings are enlarged areas of genital and perineal skin occurring in some female primates that vary in size over the course of the menstrual cycle. Thought to be an honest signal of fertility, male primates are attracted to these swell ...
. This increase in redness has been shown to attract male counterparts, expressed by their increased activity in sex, self-stimulation, and attention towards the females. Therefore, there are reasons to believe in the existence of
evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
ary
instinct
Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behaviour, containing both innate (inborn) and learned elements. The simplest example of an instinctive behaviour is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which a v ...
s that associate red with
fertility
Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertili ...
, assuming the animal in question can perceive colour with its
eyes
Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conve ...
.
Social conditioning
Folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
,
mythology
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
and
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
associate red with fertility, and women are thought to have worn the equivalent of a red
lipstick
Lipstick is a cosmetic product used to apply coloration and texture to lips, often made of wax and oil. Different pigments are used to produce color, and minerals such as silica may be used to provide texture. The use of lipstick dates back to ...
as early as 10,000 B.C. and so sexual receptiveness and red may be a result of
social conditioning
Social conditioning is the sociological process of training individuals in a society to respond in a manner generally approved by the society in general and peer groups within society. The concept is stronger than that of socialization, which is t ...
. However, this social conditioning may have originated for biological and evolutionary reasons, and is simply an extension of our primal instincts.
The
human genitals
The human reproductive system includes the male reproductive system which functions to produce and deposit sperm; and the female reproductive system which functions to produce egg cells, and to protect and nourish the fetus until birth. Humans ...
, such as the
vulva
The vulva (plural: vulvas or vulvae; derived from Latin for wrapper or covering) consists of the external sex organ, female sex organs. The vulva includes the mons pubis (or mons veneris), labia majora, labia minora, clitoris, bulb of vestibu ...
, normally have
hair
Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals.
The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and f ...
that would hide any coloured skin underneath.
Evidence for and against
In a study by Pazda it was shown that females wearing red are rated more
attractive
Attraction may refer to:
* Interpersonal attraction, the attraction between people which leads to friendships, platonic and romantic relationships
** Physical attractiveness, attraction on the basis of beauty
** Sexual attraction
* Object or event ...
by males. They explained this by referring to the biological aspect that sexually receptive women are more attractive because of them having a higher
probability
Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an Event (probability theory), event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and ...
for engaging in
sexual activity
Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) ...
, as well as a higher probability for the males to successfully
reproduce
Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. Reproduction is a fundamental feature of all known life; each individual org ...
.
The same effect seems to work the other way round. In a disputed study by Elliot it was shown that males wearing red are rated more
attractive
Attraction may refer to:
* Interpersonal attraction, the attraction between people which leads to friendships, platonic and romantic relationships
** Physical attractiveness, attraction on the basis of beauty
** Sexual attraction
* Object or event ...
by females.
A large replication study by Peperkoorn et al. found no evidence for the red dress effect.
Indeed, another large experiment found no evidence that red color cues are systematically associated with attractiveness ratings, casting doubt on the underlying mechanisms typically used to explain the red dress effect.
See also
*
Green-beard effect
The green-beard effect is a thought experiment used in evolutionary biology to explain selective altruism among individuals of a species.
The idea of a green-beard gene was proposed by William D. Hamilton in his articles of 1964, and got the ...
*
Lipstick
Lipstick is a cosmetic product used to apply coloration and texture to lips, often made of wax and oil. Different pigments are used to produce color, and minerals such as silica may be used to provide texture. The use of lipstick dates back to ...
*
Peafowl
Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are refe ...
*
Ribbon-tailed astrapia
The ribbon-tailed astrapia, also known as Shaw Mayer's astrapia (''Astrapia mayeri''), is a species of bird-of-paradise.
The ribbon-tailed astrapia is distributed and endemic to subalpine forests in western part of the central highlands of Papua ...
*
Female cosmetic coalitions
The theory of female cosmetic coalitions (FCC) represents a controversial attempt to explain the Cultural evolution , evolutionary emergence of art, ritual and symbolic culture in ''Homo sapiens''.Power, C. 2009. "Sexual selection models for the ...
References
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Psychological effects