Abstract:  Studies on psychological effect of colors have focused on the red-sex effect in the past decade. The red color may enhance sexual attractiveness in certain interpersonal context, which is mediated by gender and mate value. This can be mainly interpreted with the moderating effect of motivation. Based on the studies of zoology and psychology, this paper considers the red-sex effect as an adaptation generated from evolutional process and strengthened by culture. Future investigations should overcome the existing limitations on methodology, explore the influence of motivation, color attributes, and spatial-temporal features, as well as promote the application of the red-sex effect on products design.

Key words:  red-sex effect, sexual attractiveness, motivation, evolution