Men’s Judgment and Behavior Toward Women Wearing High Heels

Abstract

Research has consistently shown that the appearance of women’s apparel influences men’s behavior and judgment. However, the effect of women’s shoe heels has received little interest. Female confederates wearing black shoes with 0-, 5-, or 9-cm heels walked on the street. In a first experiment, we examined the number of men in the street who smiled at the female confederate. More smiles were addressed to the confederate with high heels. In a second experiment, the confederates asked men and women to respond to a short survey. It was found that high heels increased males’ but not females’ compliance with the request. In a third experiment, photographs of the same woman’s body profile wearing high heels or not were evaluated by men. Results showed that high heels were associated with greater sexiness, overall physical attractiveness, breast attractiveness, beauty, attractiveness to other men, and willingness to date. All the experiments supported the notion that high heels increase women’s attractiveness to men.

Keywords:

• Women
• attractiveness
• clothing
• shoes