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Photos Have Women Seeing Red

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There is a powerful connection between color and perception.

So say researchers at the University of Rochester. They already know that men view women wearing red as more sexually attractive and available.

It turns out women also have some pretty strong opinions about other females who are dressed in red.

"We recruited women who were in committed romantic relationships and we asked them how likely they'd be to introduce their partner to a woman in red versus green, and how likely they'd let their partner to spend time alone with her, said Adam Pazda, a UR graduate student in psychology and lead author of the study.  “We found that women are much less likely to have their men anywhere near a woman in red, essentially.”

Pazda says women who saw photos of other females in red were more likely to insult those women and say they are more likely to cheat on their partner. That was not true when the subjects were shown pictures of the same women wearing green.

The study was published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Beth Adams joined WXXI as host of Morning Edition in 2012 after a more than two-decade radio career. She was the longtime host of the WHAM Morning News in Rochester. Her career also took her from radio stations in Elmira, New York, to Miami, Florida.