How different shades of red T-shirts enhance the perceived attractiveness of Asian women in digital photographs

Abstract

AbstractThis paper investigates whether different shades of red clothes increase women’s perceived attractiveness to men and women in digital photographs. We also examined whether there was any variance in perceived attraction according to the color shade of clothes due to personal physical color traits based on Personal Color Analysis System. Participants evaluated a woman’s attractiveness presented in a photograph featuring different skin and hair colors and t-shirts in four red shades. The results indicate that the four different red shades—low chroma/high value, low chroma/medium value, high chroma/medium value, and low chroma/low value—examined in this study can enhance female attractiveness on a digital photo. Significantly, the high chroma and medium value—often considered vivid—red had a greater appeal to males and females in most skin and hair color types. This study is the first to investigate the perceived attractiveness of Asians wearing red in the context of digital photographs. The findings give insight to people and marketers with a better understanding perceived attractiveness of red clothing in digital photos. Additionally, this study confirms that the value and chroma of color, which was overlooked in previous research, should be considered as variables in studies of clothing color meanings.