(ORDO NEWS) — Can wearing high heels make you more attractive? According to a study recently published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, high heels can make a woman more sexually attractive, more status and more feminine.
High heels have been an integral part of women’s fashion for many years. They are considered an appropriate choice for many social and professional occasions. Despite this, walking in them can be painful, so what’s the use?
Previous research has shown that men find a woman’s walk more attractive when she wears heels, as heels change the lumbar curve, exaggerate the chest and hips, and increase the tilt of the pelvis.
Wearing heels can also signal health, thanks to the “cost” of wearing heels, which is discomfort. Also, high heels tend to cost more and can be a status symbol.
For their study, T. Joel Wade and colleagues recruited 448 college students from the northeastern United States.
Participants answered questions about demographic information and were then shown two silhouettes, one of a woman wearing high heels and the other of the same woman wearing shoes.
Participants rated the woman they saw on her attractiveness, strength, femininity, health, status, etc. After that, a statistical analysis was carried out.
The results showed that people rated the heeled silhouette as more attractive, more feminine, and less masculine than the flats. This is in line with previous studies showing that women wear heels to enhance their attractiveness.
No significant differences were found in how participants rated personality variables such as intelligence, affection, friendliness, or success.
This is rare for sexualization, which usually also serves to belittle the intelligence of women. Male participants rated both silhouettes as having better mating potential than female participants.
This study aimed to expand the body of research on how wearing high heels can affect perceived attractiveness. Despite this, it has its limitations.
One such limitation is that the study used silhouettes rather than real people, which may have affected participants’ perceptions. In addition, the sample was largely homogeneous, so it is difficult to say whether the results can be generalized.
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