Asked by: Ben Fernando, Birmingham
The obvious explanation is that it’s just a cultural quirk, but recent research hints at a deeper reason. Prof Anya Hurlbert, of Newcastle University, asked adults from different cultures to choose their preferred colour from pairs of coloured rectangles. This revealed that females do have a natural preference for redder colours – prompting Dr Hurlbert to speculate that evolution may have led females to prefer reddish colours, from reddish fruits to healthy pink faces.
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