The Red Power(less) Tie

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that wearing red can have significant effects on perceptions of the wearer. However, these findings are based on impressions formed while viewing static images. Here, I focus on perceptions of political leaders and show participants short videos in order to investigate color effects in stimuli with increased ecological validity. Viewers watched videos of politicians and made judgments regarding how dominant, how good a leader, and how believable the politicians appeared to be. The colors of the politicians' ties were digitally manipulated to be red or blue. Whether the politician was familiar (Study 1) or unfamiliar to viewers (Study 2), tie color had no effect on perceptions. Even when the sound was muted in order to increase the influence of visual cues (Study 3), I found no clothing color effect. Finally, when only presented with a static image (Study 4), wearing red still had no effect on judgments. These results suggest that, at least in a political setting, wearing red has no effect on perceptions. Therefore, real-world applications associated with red clothing may be limited.

Revisiting the Red Effect on Attractiveness and Sexual Receptivity: No Effect of the Color Red on Human Mate Preferences

“…We are hopeful that in time larger studies will be conducted, providing clear answers on the robustness of the red effect on mate preferences. Future research on the red effect is needed as it has important implications for researchers in the domains of sales, advertising (e.g., Aslam, 2006), politics (e.g., Kramer, 2016), public relations, and fashion (e.g., Ellinwood, 2011), where such findings might have applied value. Finally, we hope that our research provides an incentive for researchers to share their (null) findings, so as to efficiently and effectively allocate resources in examining and understanding our colorful world.…”

I believe what I see: Impact of attire and academic degree on evaluation of personality traits of a politician

“…Studies on the impact of a red dress on influencing others may serve as an example. Bashir and Rule (2014) reported that the color red enhanced a communicator’s persuasiveness, but Kramer’s (2016) research did not confirm this result. There was, however, a significant difference between these two studies.…”

“…There was, however, a significant difference between these two studies. Bashir and Rule (2014) used static pictures while Kramer’s (2016) subjects were watching video recordings. It suggests the need for further studies on the dress’s formal and casual style using dynamic presentations.…”

Human colour in mate choice and competition

“…It is common practice to present participants with images of a person whose facial skin colour or clothing colour is manipulated using computer graphics software [65,68,74,75,135,141,142]. This method allows the researcher to limit the influence of confounding variables, but a disadvantage is that the manipulation is often unrealistic.…”

“…Although the effects of red ornamentation on the attractiveness of men has received less study, men are perceived to be more attractive when wearing red clothes, an effect that is mediated by perceptions of status [73]. A man's necktie colour may also influence perceived ability in job interviews [74], although it does not affect the perceived competence of politicians [75].…”