High Heels Enhance Perceived Sexual Attractiveness, Leg Length and Women's Mate-guarding

Abstract

Abstract
Women's physical attractiveness is associated with health and fertility, but various fashion accessories could act, however, as supernormal stimuli and may enhance physical attractiveness to the opposite sex. Wearing high heels could contribute to women’s physical attractiveness in various ways. Across three independent studies, I investigated whether high heels influence the perception of leg length and consequently their physical attractiveness in both sexes and their role in women's intrasexual competition. Heeled legs were more attractive than non-heeled legs and heeled legs were also viewed as longer than non-heeled legs. Furthermore, high heels promote women's mates guarding of their own partners as well as their perception of the sexual receptivity of the target wearing high heels. In conclusion, visually prolonged leg length by wearing high heels make legs more sexually attractive and high heels promote competition between women for access to the opposite sex.

Full text

Accepted by Current Psychology in May 2020
High Heels Enhance Perceived Sexual Attractiveness, Leg Length and Women's Mate-
guarding
Pavol Prokopa,b
aDepartment of Environmental Ecology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University,
Mlynská dolina B2 418, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia. tel. +421 02/602 96 111
bInstitute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 06 Bratislava,
Slovakia. E-mail: pavol.prokop@savba.sk
1

Abstract
Women's physical attractiveness is associated with health and fertility, but various fashion
accessories could act, however, as supernormal stimuli and may enhance physical
attractiveness to the opposite sex. Wearing high heels could contribute to women’s physical
attractiveness in various ways. Across three independent studies, I investigated whether high
heels influence the perception of leg length and consequently their physical attractiveness in
both sexes and their role in women's intrasexual competition. Heeled legs were more
attractive than non-heeled legs and heeled legs were also viewed as longer than non-heeled
legs. Furthermore, high heels promote women's mates guarding of their own partners as well
as their perception of the sexual receptivity of the target wearing high heels. In conclusion,
visually prolonged leg length by wearing high heels make legs more sexually attractive and
high heels promote competition between women for access to the opposite sex.
Key words: female attractiveness, fashion, human mating
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Introduction
Across cultures, men have placed a greater emphasis on women's physical attractiveness than
vice versa (Li et al. 2002; Walter et al. 2020). These preferences are thought to be
unconsciously favoured by reproductive benefits from mating with healthy and/or fertile
women. Several components of women's physical attractiveness are associated with high
reproductive value. For example, women’s low waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), particularly those
equal or close to 0.7, is a reliable cue to physical and sexual maturity in young women who
have not been pregnant (Lassek and Gaulin 2018, 2019). The higher preference for lower
WHRs and female silhouettes with large breasts has also been confirmed using EEG data
(Pazhoohi et al. 2020). Facial attractiveness of women has been shown to be associated with
symmetry, health (Fink et al. 2002; Hume and Montgomerie 2001; Thornhill and Gangestad
1999; but see Foo et al. 2018), mating success (Rhodes et al. 2005) and women’s reproductive
success (Jokela 2009). According to the evolutionary logic, male with preferences for females
with cues of fertility are more reproductively successful.
Women's leg length and physical attractiveness
Women's leg length was found to be an important determinant of physical
attractiveness (reviewed by Cloud and Perilloux 2014). Legs slightly longer than average in
women, but not in men, were found to be sexually more attractive to both men and women
(Swami et al. 2006, 2007; Sorokowski and Pawlowski 2008; Sorokowski et al. 2011, but see
Frederick et al. 2010 and Kiire 2016 for preferences for the average leg lengths in various
cultures). These results were obtained by means of questionnaires using black-and-white
silhouettes (e.g., Sorokowski and Pawlowski 2008) or colourful 3D images (Kiire 2016). Leg
length is in all probability also influenced by natural selection, because the earliest-known
hominids were bipeds (Galik et al. 2004; Haile-Selassie 2001) and lower leg length is
3

negatively related to running economy (Laumets et al. 2017). Relatively longer legs are
associated with good health (e.g., Gunnel et al., 2005; Lawlor et al. 2002; Lawlor et al. 2004)
and some authors speculate about their associations with women's fertility (Fielding et al.
2008). Leg length has been found to negatively correlate with early childhood illnesses,
malnutrition (Wadsworth et al. 2002), risk of various illnesses (Hedges et al. 2017; Kim et al.
2008, Whitley et al. 2012, but see positive association between risk of cancer and tallness in
Gunnell et al. 2001) and positively with socioeconomic status (Davey Smith et al. 2001).
Thus, leg length seems to be cue of an individual's quality.
Women's sexual attractiveness and artificial improvements
Modern human society provides various opportunities for development of potentially
fakeable signals, which do not follow Zahavi's (1975, 1977) criteria of honest signalling
(Bradshaw et al. 2019). According to the global statistics released in 2018 by the International
Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), women continue to dominate the cosmetic
surgical market with 86.4% or 20,207,190 cosmetic procedures worldwide, with liposuction
(1,573,680 procedures) being one of the most requested cosmetic surgical procedure. Popular
surgical procedure includes liposuction of the circumference of the waist and then the use of
purified fat cells to graft to the buttocks (Roberts III et al. 2005). This procedure both narrows
the waist and enhances the buttocks (without affecting pelvic morphology), having a
synergetic effect on WHR, which enhances woman's attractiveness (Singh and Randall 1997)
measured by activation of specific centers in men's brains involved in reward processes
(Platek and Singh 2010). Men's perception of women's sexual attractiveness may therefore be
influenced by various artificial improvements.
High heels as sexual signals
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Women's secondary sexual characteristics contribute to physical attractiveness. Wearing high
heels is thought to emphasise some sex specific aspects which make women appear more
attractive (Morris 1994; Smith 1999, Smith and Helms 1999). Specifically, high heels
artificially increase the attractiveness of women for men through altering women’s gait,
reducing stride length and increasing pelvis tilt and hip rotation (Morris et al. 2013). Lewis et
al. (2017) showed that when women wear high heels, their lumbar curvature increased and
they were perceived as more attractive. In real-life situations, men approached women
wearing high heels more readily (Guéguen and Stefan, 2015). Men also perceived women
with high heels as sexier, prettier, and more elegant, with more attractive legs and buttocks
(Guéguen et al. 2016). Interestingly, women preferred wearing high heels when imagined an
interaction with an attractive man (Prokop and Švancárová 2020). Since high heels are
attractive even in the absence of gait cues (Guéguen and Stefan 2015; Guéguen et al. 2016;
Lewis et al. 2017; Morris et al. 2013), there must be other reasons that high heels increase
women’s attractiveness. Lumbar curvature could partly account for the attractiveness of
women in the static postures presented in popular magazines (Dietz and Evans 1982, Graff et
al. 2013). However, the attractiveness of women with high heels in a sitting/lying position and
in pornographic films (Albury 2009) has apparently nothing to do with lumbar curvature. It is
hypothesized that high heels can visually elongate woman's legs and consequently increase
their attractiveness (Morris 1994; Smith and Helms 1999). As far as I am aware, this
hypothesis has not yet been investigated.
Sexual signalling and women's intrasexual competition
Compared with non-human primates, men invest the most of all primates in offspring
(Puts 2010). High men's investment triggers women's intrasexual competition (Puts 2010).
Women are sensitive to the physical appearance of other women (Fink et al. 2014; Pazda et al.
5

2014) and the appearance enhancement tactic seems to be the most frequently used tactic in
competition with same-sex individuals for access to an opposite sex partner (Bradshaw et al.
2019; Buss 1988; Greer and Buss 1994; Walters and Crawford 1994). If high heels enhance
physical attractiveness for the opposite sex, then their use should increase women's
intrasexual competition (Watkins and Leitch 2020).
The present report
In the present work, inspired by the evolutionary significance of the attractiveness of
high heels, I explored a possible association between women's leg attractiveness when
wearing high heels by means of visual elongation and the role of high heels in intrasexual
competition between women. Specifically, I predicted that legs with high heels appear longer
than legs with flat-soled shoes and that perceived leg length correlates with leg attractiveness.
Moreover, if high heels are attractive to men, their presence would promote intrasexual
competition in terms of anticipated mate guarding, and perceptions of sexual receptivity.
Study 1
Study 1 primarily investigated relationships between perceived sexual attractiveness and
perceived length of legs using a forced-choice paradigm in both men and women. Men were
compared with women, because men prefer attractive, young mates more than women (Walter
et al. 2020). It also investigated whether self-reported age influences the rating of legs with
and without heels. This is because older individuals are sexually less active, have fewer
mating opportunities and lower standards for the attractiveness of a potential partner than
younger individuals (Camacho and Reyes-Ortiz 2005; Prokop et al. 2020). Thus, perceived
attractiveness of heeled shoes should decrease with increasing age.
Method
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Participants
A total of 329 Caucasian students, attending a mid-sized university in Slovakia,
participated in the study. The samples for each study were independent of each other. After
excluding students who reported having a homosexual or bisexual orientation or being below
age 18, the sample was 199 women (150 of them involved in a romantic relationship) and 97
men (37 of them involved in a romantic relationship) with a mean age of 25 years (SD =
8.41). Data exclusions were determined prior to any analysis.
Measures
Stimuli
Five shoes with high heels (11 cm heels) and five similarly looking flat sole shoes
(1cm heels) with an identical colour (white, black, red, blue and green) were chosen for the
experiment. Two photographs of legs of the same 22-year-old woman were used as targets
throughout Study 1 - 3. The female wore shoes with black coloured high and small heels and
were photographed from the same distance. The colour of the two original photographs was
manipulated in order to create remaining eight photographs using Adobe Photoshop CS2.
Specifically, I created a photo filter covering the entire surface area of shoes. Then, I
manipulated the color of the filter, which allowed other aspects of the legs, to remain
unchanged. Each pair of shoes was presented on one slide (Fig. 1, for full set of stimuli see
Supplemental Material) and their position on the right and left side was randomized.
Insert Fig 1 here
Measures of sexual attractiveness and length of legs
Participants were asked to choose one photograph from each pair according to the
perceived sexual attractiveness of the legs. All the stimuli were then presented again (in
7

random order) following Fink et al. (2014). Participants were asked to choose one photograph
from each pair according to the perceived length of legs.
Procedure
The research was carried out online. Before the web page with the online survey was made
available, each participant received a unique numerical code to secure individual identity. All
the participants received extra credit for a human biology course. Participants were initially
asked demographic questions (age, sex, relationship length), then responded to the questions
below the photographs. The same procedure was applied in Study 2 and 3.
Statistical analysis
The participants’ choices were binary coded (high heels = 1, flat sole shoes = 0) and
summarized scores for perceived attractiveness and length of legs were used for statistical
analyses. This means that the larger the number the more they chose the high heel pictures.
Data from the ratings were not normally distributed (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, both p .˂
001) and could not be improved by various transformations. Thus, the Generalized Linear
Model (GLM) with the Poisson distribution was applied for analyses, because the Poisson
distribution is frequently used for the number of events (Haigt, 1967). The independent
variables were participant's sex and age. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient was used
for examining the relationship between summarized scores of perceived leg sexual
attractiveness and length.
Results
Factors influencing ratings of leg attractiveness and length
8

The mean scores of leg perceived sexual attractiveness (M = 4.47, SD = 1.19, N =
296) and leg length (M = 4.13, SD = 1.62, N = 296) were high which suggest that the
participants manifested strong preferences for shoes with high heels, but not for flat sole
shoes. A series of binomial tests confirmed that participants almost invariably preferred all
five high heeled legs as more attractive (87 – 91% of all participants) and longer (78 – 84% of
all participants) (all p's < .001). Women scored legs with high heels as more sexually
attractive than men (GLM, Wald's χ2 = 33.64, df = 1, p < .0001, Fig. 2). Increased age of
participants was associated with lower reported sexual attractiveness of shoes with high heels
(GLM, Wald's χ2 = 19.27, df = 1, p .0001). ˂
Insert Fig 2 here
The relationship between perceived length and the sexual attractiveness of legs
There was a moderate correlation between perceived sexual attractiveness and the
length of legs (Spearman r = 0.31, p 0.001, ˂n = 296). This correlation was stronger for
women (Spearman r = 0.37, p 0.001, ˂n = 199) than for men (Spearman r = 0.2, p = 0.05, n =
97).
Discussion
Using a forced-choice paradigm, Study 1 demonstrated that legs with high heels are
perceived as more sexually attractive than legs with flat-soled shoes. Most importantly, the
perceived sexual attractiveness of legs correlated with perceived leg length. This association
suggests that legs, subjectively perceived as longer, positively influence perceived sexual
attractiveness. High heels therefore visually prolong leg length and consequently affect leg
sexual attractiveness. These influences were found to be similar with respect to participant's
sex, but, importantly, women seem to be more sensitive to leg sexual attractiveness and length
than men. High heels should therefore play a role in female-female competition.
9

Older participants manifested an overall decrease in ratings of perceived sexual
attractiveness of shoes with high heels. This finding is consistent with decreased libido and
sexual activity in older people (e.g., Camacho and Reyes-Ortiz 2005; Trompeter et al. 2012;
Vermeulen 1991).
Study 2
Study 2 investigated sexual attractiveness of legs using the continuous rating scale of
single photographs in men in order to replicate the findings obtained by the forced-choice
paradigm from Study 1.
Method
Participants
A total of 74 Caucasian students, attending a mid-sized university in Slovakia,
participated in the study. After excluding students who reported having a bisexual and
homosexual orientation or being below age 18, the sample was 69 men (39 of them involved
in a romantic relationship) with a mean age of 23 years (SD = 4.42). Data exclusions were
determined prior to any analysis.
Measures
Stimuli
Five shoes with high heels and the five similarly looking shoes without heels used in
Study 1 were chosen for the Study 2. In this study, only legs with one particular kind of shoe
(i.e., flat sole or with high heels) were presented on one slide and the order of legs with shoes
was randomized identically as in Study 3.
10

Measures of sexual attractiveness of legs and length
Participants were asked to rate each photograph on a 9-point Likert scale according to
the perceived sexual attractiveness of legs (1 = absolutely sexually unattractive, 9 = extremely
sexually attractive). The length of legs was measured with two independent methods. First,
participants were asked to choose one of three line segments differing in length identical with
the length of legs from knee to toes (Fig. 4). All lines were viewed vertically following
Armstrong and Marks (1997). The length of one segment was identical with the length of legs
(measured from knee to toes). The remaining two segments were longer or shorter than the
length of legs. If the participant chose a segment smaller than a leg, it was scored as 1, and if
it chose a segment of the same size as the legs, it was scored as 2 and if a longer segment was
chosen, it was scored as 3. The shortest segment was shorter for 20%, and the longest segment
was longer for 20% than the medium segment. Second, the participants were asked to write an
expected length of leg (from knee to toes) in cm. The summarized scores from segment length
and the mean scores from perceived leg length calculated separately for the two shoe types
were used in the subsequent analyses. There was no correlation between estimated leg length
in cm and with lines for high heels and flat-sole shoes (Spearman r = -.001 and .08, p = .99
and .50, n = 69, respectively).
Procedure
The research was carried out online. The participants were initially asked demographic
questions (age, sex, involvement in a romantic relationship), then responded to the questions
below the photographs.
Statistical analyses
Pair-wise comparisons (paired t-tests) for the summarized scores, obtained from rating
legs with flat soled shoes and with high heels, were used to compare sexual attractiveness of
11

legs. Data for perceived leg length, obtained by two independent methods, were not normally
distributed, thus the Wilcoxon paired test was used instead of parametric statistics in these
cases.
Results
Legs with shoes with heels were perceived as sexier than legs with flat sole shoes.
Perceived length of legs with shoes with heels was slightly, but significantly, longer than
perceived length of legs with flat-soled shoes (Fig. 3).
Insert Fig 3 here
Discussion
By using the continuous rating scale, Study 2 successfully replicated the findings
obtained by different men in Study 1. These results collectively suggest that legs with shoes
with high heels are more sexually attractive to men and optically longer than legs with flat
sole shoes.
Study 3
Study 3 primarily investigated the role of high heels in women's intrasexual
competition. Secondly, it investigated the influence of high heels on a person's sexual
receptivity and leg sexual attractiveness using a continuous rating scale of single photographs.
Method
Participants
A total of 144 Caucasian students, attending a mid-sized university in Slovakia,
participated in the study. After excluding students who reported having bisexual orientation or
12

being below age 18, the sample was 138 women with a mean age of 21 years (SD = 2.78).
Data exclusions were determined prior to any analysis.
Measures
Stimuli
Pictures of five shoes with high heels and the five similarly looking flat sole shoes
used in Study 1 and 2 were chosen for the Study 3. In this study, only legs with one particular
kind of shoe (i.e., high heels or flat sole shoes) were presented on one slide and the order of
legs with shoes was randomized.
Measures of leg sexual attractiveness, a person's sexual receptivity and anticipated mate
guarding
Participants were asked to rate each photograph on a 9-point Likert scale according to
perceived sexual attractiveness of legs (1 = absolutely sexually unattractive, 9 = extremely
sexually attractive). The perceived person's sexual receptivity was assessed with a single face-
valid item from Pazda et al. (2012) (“This person is interested in sex”) on the same scale (1 =
no, not at all, 9 (yes, definitely). Anticipated mate guarding was assessed with two items from
Vaillancourt and Sharma (2011) and Pazda et al. (2014) (“How likely would you be to
introduce this person to your boyfriend?” and “How likely would you be to let your boyfriend
spend time alone with this person?”) using a 1 (not at all likely) to 9 (very likely) scale. Mate
guarding items highly correlated with each other (r = .87, p < .001), thus summarized scores
were used in the subsequent analyses (see Pazda et al. 2014 for the same approach).
Anticipated mate guarding items were reverse scored, so that high scores refer to high
intrasexual competition.
Measures of length of legs
13

Perceived leg length was measured with two different methods identically as in Study
2. The correlations between the variables from both two methods were small for flat sole
shoes (Spearman r = .16, p = .06, n = 138) and moderate for shoes with high heels (Spearman
r = 0.26, p = .001, n = 138).
Procedure
The research was carried out online. The participants were initially asked demographic
questions (age, sex, relationship length), then responded to the questions below the
photographs.
Statistical analyses
Pair-wise comparisons (paired t-tests) for the summarized scores obtained from ratings
legs with and without heels were used to compare 1) sexual attractiveness of legs, 2)
anticipated mate guarding and 3) a perceived person's sexual receptivity. Data for perceived
leg length, obtained by two independent methods, were not normally distributed and data
transformation was not helpful, thus the Wilcoxon paired test was used instead of parametric
statistics in these cases.
Results
Shoes with high heels were perceived as more sexy, anticipated mate-guarding was
more intense and a perceived person's sexual receptivity was higher than in shoes without
heels. Both two methods demonstrated that legs with heels were perceived as longer than legs
without shoes (Fig. 5). When the analysis was restricted exclusively to women involved in
a romantic relationship (n = 98), the results remained unchanged.
Insert Fig 5 here
14

Discussion
Study 3 showed that high heels promote intrasexual competition. When looking at legs
with shoes with high heels, women reported stronger mate-guarding than when looking at flat-
soled shoes. Furthermore, the female target in the high heel condition was perceived to be
more sexually receptive. Research demonstrated that women are more distressed about threats
from rivals who surpass them in terms of physical attractiveness (Buss et al. 2000; Dijkstra
and Buunk 1998, 2001; Pazda et al. 2014). Moreover, high heels enhanced both legs and
overall sexual attractiveness which is in agreement with current research (Guéguen and Stefan
2015; Guéguen et al. 2016). Study 3 also showed that the accuracy of positive influences of
high heels on sexual attractiveness was repeatable in a new sample of women. The use of the
continuous rating scale yielded the same results as with the forced-choice method (Study 1).
General discussion
High heels are one of many artificial practices which women use in order to attract the
interest of the opposite sex (Morris 1994; Smith and Helms 1999). Increasing number of
evidence suggests that high heels contribute to various aspects of woman's physical
attractiveness (Guéguen and Stefan 2015; Guéguen et al. 2016; Lewis et al. 2017; Morris et
al. 2013; Smith and Helms 1999). Across three independent studies, I demonstrated that the
presence of high heels makes legs longer and therefore more sexually attractive for both
sexes. Furthermore, Study 3 showed that high heels play a significant role in woman's
competition with members of the same sex.
Although enhanced sexual attractiveness of legs with high heels is in accordance with
current research (Guéguen and Stefan 2015; Guéguen et al. 2016; Lewis et al. 2017; Morris et
al. 2013), this particular study showed pictures of legs instead of pictures of woman's bodies
used in previous research. It therefore rules out other factors which positively influence
15

woman's physical attractiveness to men when wearing high heels, such as lumbar curvature
(Lewis et al. 2017), women’s gait, reduced stride length and increased pelvis tilt and hip
rotation (Guéguen and Stefan 2015; Morris et al. 2013). It needs to be acknowledged,
however, that the fact that high heels increase attractiveness even in the absence of cues to
gait and posture does not necessarily mean that factors other than gait and posture are
responsible for the attractiveness of the heels because the view of legs with high-heeled shoes
can remind the observer the posture and gait of women with such shoes.
It has been pointed out that an attractive leg is the straightness of the leg column
(Benslimane 2012). It is therefore possible that differences in leg shape or some other factors
(correlated to leg length) rather than leg length per se could influence leg attractiveness.
However, the present study was based on photographs taken from the same person which
eliminates these potentially confounding factors.
An association between longer legs and perceived physical attractiveness (Swami et al.
2006, 2007; Sorokowski and Pawlowski 2008; Sorokowski et al. 2011) and health (e.g.,
Gunnel et al. 2005; Hedges et al. 2017; Lawlor et al. 2002, 2004; Whitley et al. 2012)
provides an ultimate explanation for the enhanced attractiveness of legs with high heels. As
far as I am aware, this is the first empirical evidence that high heels enhance leg attractiveness
in women also by means of visual elongation which supports earlier hypotheses regarding the
functional significance of high heel use (Morris 1994; Smith and Helms 1999). By selection
of high heels, women may intentionally attract men's attention. It is important to note that this
result was confirmed by both a forced-choice paradigm as well as by continuous ratings by
both sexes.
One important outcome from Study 1 is that women rated legs with high heels as more
sexually attractive than men and correlation between perceived leg length and perceived
attractiveness was stronger for women than for men. Sex differences in evaluation of targets
16

in high heel conditions has not been previously reported (Guéguen et al. 2016; Morris et al.
2013). One explanation for higher attractiveness scores is that women are highly sensitive to
the appearance enhancement tactic used by other women when attracting/competing for
access to an opposite sex partner (e.g., Bradshaw et al. 2019; Fink et al. 2014; Pazda et al.
2014; Walters and Crawford 1994). Indeed, anticipated mate-guarding was more intense and a
perceived person's sexual receptivity was higher in high heel conditions compared with flat-
soled shoes condition. Women who are able to correctly interpret the sexual signals of their
potential same-sex competitions would be more successful in retaining their sexual partners
from poachers by means of social exclusion (Benenson 2009; Buss et al. 2000; Vaillancourt
and Sharma 2011) and/or by extreme beautification (Bradshaw et al. 2019). In summary,
Study 3 provides initial support that women perceive other women in high heels as sexually
receptive.
Limitations
The main limitation of this research is an absence of any additional information
regarding the perception of legs in context with bodies. I acknowledge that leg-to-body ratio
provides more realistic information regarding human physical attractiveness (e.g., Sorokowski
et al. 2011; Kiire 2016; Swami et al. 2006). The present study still has merit, however,
considering that I manipulated only one trait (legs) without additional confounding factors
similarly as other researchers (e.g. Fink et al. 2014; Pazda et al. 2014). Furthermore, based on
the present study, it could be expected that legs, elongated by high heels, could be specifically
attractive in women with naturally short legs. This idea needs to be investigated by
manipulations with visual stimuli with various leg-to-body ratio features (e.g. Kiire 2016).
The contribution of the current study, i.e. the role of high heels in perceived leg length and
attractiveness, however, will not be diminished with such additional research.
17

Pictures of the shoes used in this study indicate that the heeled shoes may simply be sexier
than the design of the flat shoes. The high heels are pointy at the front and the flats are round
in the front. Pointy fronts, even on the flats, may simply be sexier than round fronts. It is not
clear if the pointy fronts can account for the elongation of the leg, but certainly the sexiness.
Future research should address this limitation by comparing stimuli varying specifically on
heel length while other things being equal.
Conclusions and future research
In conclusion, high heels can enhance women's attractiveness to men by means of
visual leg elongation. High heels promote competition between women for access to the
opposite sex. Further research should be directed at investigating the role of women's
intrasexual competitiveness and the probability of conception in real life situations. Finally,
the role of high heels in promoting mate guarding by male partners could also be a promising
area for further research.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Statement of Conflict of Interest The author declares no conflict of interest.
Ethical Statement (Including the Name of the Approval Board) All procedures performed
in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the
institutional research committee (TU ethics committee, reference 154/17) and with the 1964
Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent Written consent was received before the research was carried out. After
the research was completed, the raters were debriefed regarding the research goals.
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Figure 1. Example of legs with shoes with high heels (a) and flat sole shoes (b).
a)
b)
26

27

Figure 2. Gender differences in perceived sexual attractiveness and length of legs. *** p .˂
001, ns = not significant difference.
Attractiveness Length
0
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5Men
Women
Total score ± SD
28

Figure 3. Differences in men's ratings of shoes with high heels and with flat-soled shoes. ***p
.001, ** ˂p .01, * ˂p .05 ˂
Leg sexual attractiveness
Leg length (estimated in cm)
Leg length (estimated by lines)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Flat-soled
High heels
Mean score ± SD
29

Figure 4. Example of shorter (a), identical (b) and elongated (c) line segments which
participants compared with leg length (measured from knee to toes)
30

Figure 5. Differences in ratings of flat-soled shoes and shoes with high heels by women. ***p
.001 ˂
Leg sexual attractiveness
Mate-guarding
Interest in sex
Leg length (estimated in cm)
Leg length (estimated by lines)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Flat-soled
High heels
Mean score ± SD
31