In some potentially unnecessary research done by a university, an actual university, it’s been found that women find other women threatening if they’re dressed in red.
A test was conducted where people in two groups were shown a photo of the same woman; one half of the group saw an image of her in a white shirt, the other half saw her in a red shirt. They were then asked to rate how sexually receptive each woman was. As it turns out, the woman in red was deemed more ‘sexually receptive’ and ‘more open to sexual encounters’.
A second experiment involved getting women to say mean things about the woman in red. They were asked about the woman’s sexual fidelity, how faithful she is and how much money she had and if she drove a nice car. They said more derogatory things about the woman in the red dress than the same woman in a white dress. This was all based on a photo, just FYI.
The third experiment was identical to the first except the photos were of a woman a green dress and the same woman in a red dress – just in case the first study was skewed by the fact we associate white with purity and virginity. The women – all in relationships, were asked ‘How likely they would be to introduce their boyfriend, and these women were reluctant to leave a man alone with a woman in a red shirt.’ According to Adam Panza, a social psychologist at the University of Rochester who headed up the research.
Speaking to *ABC * about the report which appeared in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, he continued: ‘I don’t think it’s the case that women who wear red are always advertising sexual interest. But there is evidence that people make judgments about other people in general based on clothing. You can see how colour might easily fit into that.’
We don’t really want to give this experiment too much credence. We shouldn’t have to feel like predators just because we wear red. On the plus side, if we were to take this to heart, think of all the men with boring jealous girlfriends we’ll get to avoid early on next time we wear red!
And maybe, maybe, just knowing how ridiculous this study is – people are encouraged to judge women’s finances and morals based on little more than one photo of them, you get more from a person on Tinder, FFS – we’ll check ourselves next time we begin to make assertions about a woman in red.
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Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.