By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If a woman wants to go mad men, you may need to wear red .
A group of U.S. researchers said Tuesday that, faced with multiple photos, the men found more sexually attractive to women who wear red or at least those framed images in that color.
The study, led by psychology professor Andrew Elliot of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, seems to confirm that red is the color of romance, such as manufacturers of valentines and sellers lipsticks have believed for years.
Although this "red alert" may be the product of human association of red with love and passion, may also arise from more primitive biological roots, Elliot said.
Noting the genetic similarity between humans and higher primates, the specialist said scientists have shown that certain apes are especially attracted to females displaying red.
For example, female baboons and chimpanzees show red coloring when they are near ovulation, sending a sexual signal that the males apparently find irresistible.
"This trend could be very deep, biologically based to respond to red as an attraction is given by our evolutionary heritage," he said in a telephone interview Elliot, whose findings appear in the U.S. journal Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
The study was conducted with a group more than 100 men, mostly university students, who were shown pictures of women and then asked to evaluate according to the beauty and the joy they gave to kiss and have sex with them.
The students saw the same image with edges of different color: red, white, green and gray. Although it was the same picture, when it was framed in red the respondents rated as more attractive than if the color was different.
Then they were shown images that were exactly alike, but that investigators had altered digitally in some photos of the woman's shirt off other red and blue. Again, the majority of men chose the red dress as more attractive.
The study also was asked how much money men are willing to spend if they went on a date with $ 100 in your wallet. Again, participants were asked to spend more on women dressed in red.
The researchers also noticed that the color red only altered the rating in terms of attractive and not of taste, intelligence and sympathy.
Finally, the researchers asked a group of women to rate the photographs of other women in line its beauty. The red color had no impact on results. Gay men and color blind
were excluded.
