Red and Romantic Rivalry: Viewing Another Woman in Red Increases Perceptions of Sexual Receptivity,Derogation,and Intentions to Mate-Guard

Research has shown that men perceive women wearing red,relative to other colors,as more attractive and more sexually receptive; women’s perceptions of other women wearing red have scarcely been investigated. we hypothesized that women would also interpret female red as a sexual receptivity cue,and that this perception would be accompanied by rival derogation and intentions to mate-guard. experiment 1 demonstrated that women perceive another woman in a red,relative to white,dress as sexually receptive. experiment 2 demonstrated that women are more likely to derogate the sexual fidelity of a woman in red,relative to white. experiment 3 revealed that women are more likely to intend to guard their romantic partner from a woman wearing a red,relative to a green,shirt. these results suggest that some color signals are interpreted similarly across sex,albeit with associated reactions that are sex-specific. © 2014 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.