A new study has found that one woman's attire can affect the women around her. Women who see other females dressed in red are more inclined to view them as a 'sexual threat' when compared to women who wear different colored clothes.
The analysis, conducted by researchers from the University of Rochester as well as collaborators from Trnava University in Slovakia and the Slovak Academy of Sciences, comprised of three experiments that involved several hundred women looking at photos of other women in different clothing and then assessing their appearance.
In the first experiment, the participants were asked to determine which woman appeared to be more receptive to sex - a woman in a white dress, or a woman in a red dress. The researchers blurred the faces of the women in the photo, and simply manipulated the picture of the woman in the white dress and gave her a red dress. A majority of the participants agreed the woman in the red was more interested in sex.
In the next experiment, the participants looked at the same photos, but were asked how they felt about each woman's fidelity and financial resources. The women respondents said they believed the woman in red would be more inclined to cheat on her partner, but didn't have an opinion about her financial situation.
In the final experiment, photos of women who wore a shirt that had been digitally altered to be red or green were presented to the participants. They were then asked if they would be willing to introduce their boyfriends to either woman, and a majority said they wouldn't want their man anywhere near the woman in red. This further assured the researchers that women in red are perceived as a sexual threat by other women.
"We tend to take color for granted," said the study's lead author Adam Pazda, a graduate student from the University of Rochester, in this ABC News article. "It's not just a pretty thing in our environment that adds to the aesthetic experience in the world. Behind the scenes, it can affect us psychologically in the way we perceive others or ourselves."
From the information provided by the participants, the researchers were able to conclude that some color signals are interpreted similarly across sex, although with associated reactions that are sex-specific. The study, "Red and Romantic Rivalry: Viewing Another Woman in Red Increases Perceptions of Sexual Receptivity, Derogation, and Intentions to Mate-Guard," was published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
You can read more about it in this Pacific Standard article.