I can already hear women groaning — but a study published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior clearly proves that men find women in high heels significantly more attractive and erotic.

The study’s author, Nicholas Gueguen, is a professor at the University of South Brittany in Vannes, where he researches human social behavior. As part of his work, he conducted a study to examine the effect high heels have on attraction. To do so, he carried out three experiments involving French women. All test participants were dressed identically: black suits with straight skirts and white blouses. They were also all brunettes — based on one of Gueguen’s earlier studies that showed men are more likely to approach blonde women to ask for a date. The only difference between them? Their shoes.

In the experiments, Gueguen had the women act as “scientific bait” by approaching unsuspecting men.

In the first round, the women wore black flats and asked passersby for help. After each woman had approached 10 people, they repeated the test — but this time wearing shoes with higher heels. In the second round, they wore black shoes with 5-centimeter heels. In the third and final round, they wore black pumps with 9-centimeter heels.

When a 19-year-old woman approached men between the ages of 25 and 50 and asked them to participate in a survey on gender equality, she received the most positive responses while wearing the highest heels. When she wore flat shoes, only 47% of the men agreed to take part. With five-centimeter heels, the participation rate rose to 63%. But when she wore heels over eight centimeters high, a remarkable 83% of the men she approached were willing to spend three to four minutes answering her questions. Her success rate nearly doubled — solely due to the height of her heels. This result isn’t particularly surprising.

But it raises an interesting question: do women respond the same way to other women wearing high heels?

To find out, Professor Gueguen conducted a second experiment in which four women asked both men and women to take part in a nutrition survey. Once again, men were far more likely to respond positively when the women wore higher heels — 82% agreed to participate when the women wore nine-centimeter heels, compared to only 42% when they wore flats.

Among the female respondents, however, heel height made no difference. Only about 33% of the women agreed to take part in the survey — regardless of what kind of shoes the interviewers were wearing.

But why are men more responsive to women in high heels? To test his hypothesis of obvious attraction, Gueguen instructed the women to walk toward a “marked spot” in front of a man — and then drop a glove.

An impressive 93% of the men rushed to return the glove when the women were wearing high heels, compared to just 62% when they wore flat shoes.

And while women also showed more helpfulness toward women in heels than those in flats, the numbers were significantly lower: 52% of women assisted the high-heeled participants, while only 43% helped those in flat shoes.

For the grand finale, the researchers wanted to find out whether high heels actually make men more likely to approach women as potential partners.

They placed women wearing different heel heights strategically in three bars, seating them at tables near the bar area — where their shoes were clearly visible to the men scanning the scene from the counter.

On average, it took men only 7.49 minutes to approach the women wearing high heels. In contrast, women wearing flat shoes waited an average of 13.54 minutes — almost twice as long — before being approached.

All of this confirms that men tend to use physical traits to assess a woman’s attractiveness and identify potential partners. It’s hardly a revelation — in a previous study, Gueguen found that female hitchhikers with larger breasts were more likely to be picked up by male drivers.

But now, science adds some credible support to the decision to wear sky-high heels.

“As a man, I notice that I prefer seeing my wife when she’s wearing high heels, and many men in France share the same opinion,” Gueguen writes.

Aber was genau ist an High Heels so sexy? Gueguen beschuldigt (oder lobt) die Medien für ihre starke Bildassoziation zwischen Stilettos und Sexappeal. Und ja, höhere Absätze können die Art und Weise verändern, wie eine Frau geht, indem sie ihre Hüften etwas mehr schwingen lassen, wenn sie in einer prekären Höhe geht, aber in der Studie wurden sogar Frauen, die saßen und Absätze trugen, von mehr Männern angesprochen. Und Gueguens Nachfolgestudien, in denen er Männern Fotos von Frauen zeigte, die Absätze oder flache Schuhe trugen, bestätigten, dass wesentlich mehr hinter der Anziehungskraft der High Heels steckt als der Gang einer Frau. Gueguen schreibt: „Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass High Heels mit größerer Sexualität, allgemeiner körperlicher Attraktivität, Brustattraktivität, Schönheit, Attraktivität für andere Männer und Bereitschaft für ein Date assoziiert wurden“. Egal, ob Sie als Frau angesprochen oder in Ruhe gelassen werden möchten, es gibt für jeden Zweck die passende Schuhhöhe und den passenden Absatz. Ich habe für meinen nächsten Barbesuch jedenfalls ein sehr interessantes Gesprächsthema.