What Colour Is Most Attractive?

[Music] The Sydney dating scene is pretty superficial. But what do people want in a partner? We asked some local Sydneysiders to rate these two stock photo babes out of 10 based purely on their looks.

“How would you rate him?”
“Six.”
“Six? Yeah, lovely smile. He does face so I'd rate him highly. I he smile, he looks peaceful. I don't know, looks like a good guy, friendly looking. He's got a, yeah, he's got a nice face. Um, just out of 10 purely on looks, which I know is superficial. Um, and if you could rate this man?”
“I like blonde hair and big tee. Seems to be a very natural look which is I think is a bit rare sometimes. So yeah, it just looks, uh, natural and fresh.”

What we didn't tell them is there actually two versions of the girls and guys: one in red and one in blue. We weren't really trying to measure how hot they thought the girls and guys were, but what they thought of their t-shirt color choice. Scientists have shown that straight men and women prefer the opposite sex to be wearing red and find them more attractive. But what do our subjects think?

“I don't know, it's a little bit subjective and just to narrow someone down to like a number, like H she's, uh, eight.”
“Uh, go eight.”
“Uh, eight.”
“So eight, eight, eight you.”
“A nine? I'd never get anything like that. I'd love to get a chicken like that and I'd go, you're a 10. I love you.”
“Out of 10, I'd give that a seven, seven, an eight, an eight.”

Okay, cool. In the scientist study, they found that the subjects weren't actually aware of the effect that red was having on them. But our test subjects were a little divided on whether color really mattered.

“I think it's more how they wear it rather than what color it is. And I like dreadlocks and not colorful t-shirts so there I, I, I wouldn't say which ones work for me necessarily. But just certain some outfits seem to, I don't know, work better than others.”

“I guess if you like a specific color and they're wearing that color, then you're obviously going to think that they got good taste.”
“Yeah, not so much color, I wouldn't, I personally I wouldn't.”
“4 and a half.”
“4 and a half? I just don't like the shirt she's wearing.”
“His rank? Yeah, just put me off straight up. It's a plain Bond shirt or something and it's bright red. Looks like she's on The Biggest Loser.”

So what did our study find? Well, the girls and guys in red were rated more attractive than the girls and guys in blue, but not by that much. Still, if you trust science as I do, then you should be wearing red on your next date. [Music]