A pair of 4-inch heels can make the difference between being a
wallflower and being the center of attention in a room. High heels add
the finishing touch to any ensemble, making them a girl’s best friend.
According to a recent
study published in the journal
Archives of Sexual Behavior, women who wear high heels are found to be significantly sexier to men.
"Women's shoe heel size exerts a powerful effect on men's behavior,"
said Nicolas Gueguen, lead author of the study from the department of
social behavior at the University of Bretagne, according to the
press release.
Heels force the pelvis to tilt so that your backside and your chest
stick out more in comparison to flats. This elongates the female body
and accentuates one of the most desirable traits found by men: long
legs.
From an evolutionary standpoint, a woman’s leg length is tied to the state of her health and fertility. A 2008
study published in the journal
Evolution and Human Behavior
found leg length is a good indicator of nutrition, since legs stop
growing once women reach puberty. If a woman has long legs, she most
likely grew up in a good environment, which can yield a positive effect
on fertility.
Gueguen sought to observe the effect of sartorial appearance by
conducting a series of four studies on the length of women’s shoe heels.
In three out of the four studies, the French female participants were
identically dressed in black suits with straight skirts and white
shirts. Most of the participants were all brunettes because previous
studies showed that men were more likely to approach blonde women over
brunettes and ask them out on dates. The only noticeable difference
among these women were their shoes.
The first three studies involved a woman confederate wearing black
shoes with no heel, a 2-inch heel, or black pumps with a 3.5-inch heel
asking men for help in various circumstances. The woman switched shoes
after soliciting every 10 people.
In the first study, the women asked men to respond to a short survey
on gender equality. The findings revealed women garnered the most
responses when wearing the highest heels, with 83 percent of the men
approached agreeing to spend three to four minutes answering
questions. In comparison, 47 percent answered the questions when women
wore flats.
Gueguen was curious as to whether this pattern could be seen when
four women approached both men and women to answer some survey
questions. The second study asked men and women to participate in a
survey on local food habit consumption. Similar to the first study, men
were more likely to respond when the women wore the highest heels — 3.5
inches — with a rate of 82 percent compared to their flat counterparts
who only got 42 percent to say yes to the survey request. However, only
33 percent of women agreed to answer the survey, regardless of their
heel height.
Since the men in both studies were receptive, Gueguen sought to test
his obvious attraction hypothesis by observing men and women who were
walking in back of the female participant. For the third study, the
women were asked to walk ahead of the “targets” and then drop a glove in
an oblivious fashion. The findings revealed 93 percent of men chased
after the women when they wore high heels to return the glove, while
only 62 percent did when she wore flat shoes. In this scenario, women
were also more likely to track down the high-heeled women than their
flat counterparts by 52 percent and 43 percent, respectively.
In the fourth and final study, Gueguen wanted to observe if high
heels actually make men more likely to pursue a woman as a romantic
interest. He strategically placed women wearing different heel heights
in three bars as he sat them at tables near the bar where their shoes
were visible to those standing and walking around the area. It took men
about eight minutes to approach a woman wearing heels compared to those
wearing flats, which took about 14 minutes.
Source
