Those of you playing at home may have noticed that men have more predictable (and physical) definitions of what makes a woman attractive than women do for men. [9] Elsewhere in the “Hey, eyes up here!” school of attraction science, people in one study tended to look at faces if seeking love, and bodies if motivated by sexual desire. [10] In another study, people tended to check out a romantic prospect’s head and chest—while they focused on the legs and feet of someone in the friend zone. [11]

If two people can get it together to go out, they are likely to wear red or black, especially common choices on a first date. [12] No wonder: Red makes everyone seem more attractive, both to themselves and to others. [13] What they order matters, too. Researchers have found that a woman is more likely to find a man attractive if she’s eating something that’s spicy rather than sweet. [14] A drink may also help—but only one. In an experiment, people who had the equivalent of a glass of wine were rated more attractive than people who drank either no alcohol or more than a glass, perhaps because they seemed more relaxed, or maybe because they were attractively flushed. [15]

Of course, true hotness lies within, but how do you get someone to discover your inner hottie if you lack come-hither hips or piercing, symmetrical eyes? A red shirt, a glass of wine, and a little curry could be a good start.

The Studies

[1] Little et al., “Symmetry Is Related to Sexual Dimorphism in Faces” (PLoS ONE, May 2008)

[2] Singh et al., “Cross-Cultural Consensus for Waist-Hip Ratio and Women’s Attractiveness” (Evolution and Human Behavior, May 2010)

[3] Burriss et al., “Facial Scarring Enhances Men’s Attractiveness for Short-Term Relationships” (Personality and Individual Differences, Jan. 2009)

[4] Dixson et al., “The Masculinity Paradox” (Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Aug. 2016)

[5] Mons Bendixen, “Evidence of Systematic Bias in Sexual Over- and Underperception of Naturally Occurring Events” (Evolutionary Psychology, Nov. 2014)

[6] Haselton, “The Sexual Overperception Bias” (Journal of Research in Personality, Feb. 2003)

[7] Bleske-Rechek et al., “Sex Differences in Young Adults’ Attraction to Opposite-Sex Friends” (Evolutionary Psychological Science, Sept. 2016)

[8] Whitchurch et al., “ ‘He loves me, he loves me not …’ ” (Psychological Science, Feb. 2011)

[9] Wood and Brumbaugh, “Using Revealed Mate Preferences to Evaluate Market Force and Differential Preference Explanations for Mate Selection” (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, June 2009)

[10] Bolmont et al., “Love Is in the Gaze” (Psychological Science, July 2014)

[11] Gillath et al., “Eye Movements When Looking at Potential Friends and Romantic Partners,” (Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2017)

[12] Kramer and Mulgrew, “Displaying Red and Black on a First Date” (Evolutionary Psychology, April 2018)

[13] Berthold et al., “The Effect of Red Color on Perceived Self-Attractiveness” (European Journal of Social Psychology, May 2017)

[14] Miska, “Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice” (Psi Chi, Spring 2018)

[15] Van Den Abbeele et al., “Increased Facial Attractiveness Following Moderate, but Not High, Alcohol Consumption” (Alcohol and Alcoholism, May/June 2015)

This article appears in the September 2019 print edition with the headline “Laws of Attraction.”

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