Male Diners Tip Better When Waitress Wears Red: Study

THURSDAY, Aug. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Waitresses who wear red receive bigger tips from their male customers, researchers have found, noting that the color red has been shown to increase women's physical and sexual attractiveness to men.

In conducting the study, researchers Nicolas Gueguen and Celine Jacob of the University of Southern Brittany, in France, instructed 11 waitresses in five restaurants to wear the same tee shirt in six different colors over the course of six weeks.

On any given day, the women wore either a black, white, red, blue, green or yellow shirt. The waitresses were also told to act normally and record how much they received in tips from each customer.

After recording the tips of 272 restaurant customers, the investigators found that across the board, men gave bigger tips than women. They also found that men gave between 14 percent and 26 percent more to waitresses wearing red. However, the color waitresses wore had no effect on the tips left by female customers.

The findings suggest that when it comes to waitresses selecting what to wear, "as red color has no negative effect on women customers, it could be in their interest to wear red clothes at work," the researchers concluded in the news release.

This study was released online in advance of print publication in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research.

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SOURCE: Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, news release, Aug. 2, 2012