Men Find Women Sexier When They're Wearing Heels, According to Science

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So that’s why Carrie Bradshaw never left the house without a pair of high heels on. According to research published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, men, apparently, find women to be more attractive when they’re wearing high heels.

"Women’s shoe heel size exerts a powerful effect on men’s behavior," author Nicholas Guéguen of the Université de Bretagne-Sud in France said. By observing the behavior of 90 randomly selected male study participants between the ages of 25 and 50 in a series of experiments, Guéguen found that men are more willing to help and hit on ladies wearing heels than those in sensible shoes.

In one test, Guéguen watched what happened when a 19-year-old female asked a passerby of the opposite sex while wearing three different types of shoes — once in black flat shoes, black medium-heeled shoes (2 in.), and black high heeled shoes (3.5 in.) — to complete a survey. More men were willing to stop and answer questions when the 19-year-old was wearing the highest-heeled shoes. In another analysis, she acted like a damsel in distress, dropped a glove, and watched as more men helped her when she was wearing higher shoes. In the third experiment, researchers tallied how many men approached a group of ladies who wore heels of various sizes. The results: Guys initiated conversation with those in stilettos much quicker than they did with those wearing flatter shoes.

Based on the outcomes, the number of men who responded to women wearing the highest heels doubled compared to when they responded (or didn’t respond) to women wearing the lowest heel height. “The results showed that high heels were associated with greater sexiness, overall physical attractiveness, breast attractiveness, beauty, attractiveness to other men, and willingness for a date.”

Guéguen speculates that the media’s sanctification of women in stilettos has something to do with why men have started to draw the association between those sporting high shoes and a woman’s sexual intent.