Men Prefer Women Who Dress In Red And Wear Red Lipstick – How To Earn More Tips Or Favours From Men
Christopher Philip
Men are more likely to find a women wearing red lipstick and red attire sexy and also to offer them assistance and tips.
Across three studies men showed a stronger preference to women who wore red clothing and red lipstick. Little is know why exactly this is so. However, non-human primates are well-known to display overt sexual cues. For example, the red rump of the baboon showcases a female’s sexual receptivity. It is a beacon, a broadcast display to males that she is primed and ready for copulation.
Humans are also known to produce redness and swelling in certain regions of the body when aroused. The lips and labia surrounding the vagina become engorged when sexually stimulated, though not to the same extend that we see in baboons. The breasts also grow larger during sexual arousal and the skin often flushes noticeably. Not to be left out, the male penis also engorges with blood turning it bright pink. It seems that the colour red is a strong indication that sex is immanent or occurring.
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The natural colour for our lips are red and that’s no evolutionary mistake. It could be just as easy for us to have plain old regular monkey lips rather that our pink everted variety. Our lips are red because our lip edge, called the vermillion border, is distinct from the edge of our skin. Our lips contain underlying blood vessels, arteries and veins and capillaries are closely located to the top of the skin in our lips and the skin there is quite thin. Our lips are uniquely human and come at considerable cost. Considering their risk of severe drying and various discomforts they produce through chapped and dry lips, not to mention the risk of sunburn since they carry no melanin it’s a wonder we haven’t lost them like our primate cousins. Our only viable conclusion forces us to assume that their redness is sexually appealing.
Three studies by researcher by French researcher Nicolas Guéguen University de Bretagne-Sud showed how women can benefit just by employing red into their wardrobe and make-up – especially if they wish to influence the decisions of nearby men.
In the first study, 319 men and 128 women were observed for their tipping behaviour. Seven female servers between the ages of 19-24 were selected for the study. These were regular working servers and habitually wore make-up and lipstick as part of their daily routine. Over the course of 5 days, the servers wore either red, pink, brown or no lipstick at all. Each was not made aware of the purpose of the study and were told to act and dress the same under each variation.
In France a 12% surcharge is automatically added to the bill, thus any tips left by patrons was entirely voluntary and made an excellent predictor of the impressions they left on customers.
The researchers found that red had the most pronounced effect on tipping behaviour but only for the male patrons. The female patrons did not show any indication that the colour of lipstick versus no lipstick had any effect. According to the researchers they “found that male patrons gave tips more often to a waitress who wore lipstick and, when they did so, they gave her a larger amount of money. However, this effect was found
only when waitresses wore red lipstick. With female patron no lipstick effect was found.”
In the second experiment, the researchers sought to measure the effect that red had on spontaneous helping behaviour. This time he had five female confederates in their early 20’s position themselves on a well traveled roadway to pose as hitchhikers. They were instructed to wear a black, white, red, blue, green or yellow t-shirt. All other variables remained constant.
Once again, the only effect that proved significant was when the hitchhikers wore red but only if the driver was male. The colour of the shirt had no impact on female drivers. For male drivers the rate of helping was as follows: black 12.5%, white 14%, yellow 15%, blue 14%, green 13% and red 21%.
In the final experiment, Guéguen sought to determine the impressions that red had on men. He wanted to know if women who wore red were rated as being more sexually interested. This study had 120 male undergraduates examine a photo of a woman and rate her on various characteristics. The photo showed a moderately attractive woman including her head and upper torso in a t-shirt while smiling. The same image was doctored with the help of photoshop to create four color variations of the t-shirt including red, blue, green and white.
After examining the photo for 30 seconds, the subjects were asked to rate the perceived attractiveness of the model in the photograph as well as her sexual intent. To measure attractiveness the subjects were asked “How attractive do you think this woman is?”, whereas sexual intent was asked through the question “How likely would this woman be to have sex with a man on the first date?” Each subject provided their rating on a scale from 1-9.
The results showed that “Men who viewed a woman dressed in red as opposed to one in green, blue, or white perceived her to be more attractive and to have more sexual intent.”
Conclusion
The results on red lipstick was the first of its kind to positively correlate lipstick with tipping behaviour, thus showing a real-to-life economic preference. If you are a female server, then the take-home message is simple, wear red lipstick to gain greater tips. The results also showed that red clothing had a slight affect on the overall impressions made on men. While it’s difficult to make positive conclusions as to the cause of this effect, knowing the result is as potent. It’s simple, if women wish to gain favour from men, they should wear red.
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Resources
Nicolas Guéguen. Color and Women Attractiveness: When Red Clothed Women Are Perceived to Have More Intense Sexual Intent. The Journal of Social Psychology, 2019; 152(3): 261–265.
Nicolas Guéguen and Céline Jacob. Lipstick And Tipping Behavior: When Red Lipstick Enhance Waitresses Tips. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 2019; 31: 1333– 1335.
Nicolas Guéguen. Color and Women Hitchhikers’ Attractiveness: Gentlemen Drivers Prefer Red. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 2019; 37 (1): 76-78.
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