With Valentine’s Day coming up, everyone already has their plans to go out on a date with that special someone or sit in watching the best chick flicks with your girls. Whatever your plans may be that night, make sure you look your best because you never know if that night you might meet that someone that makes all of the rest of your Valentine’s days special. If you’re single and going out, black might seem like the best color to wear because hey, why not protest this holiday but there is science behind wearing the true Valentine’s Day color, red.

Honestly, I love wearing the holiday’s colors that day because it just gets you more into the spirit of the day but I truly believe that there is something behind wearing red. According to a psychological study done by the University of Rochester in 2008, when men were shown a few pictures of the same woman in different colors, they responded to being more sexually attracted to the one picture when she was wearing red. Even if the woman was near a red background or the picture was in a red frame, men continued to agree that she was more attractive than in the other pictures with different colors. Strangely though, the red effect only tends to work on the male brain but simply have no effect with females. Also the red effect only changed the level of attractiveness to men but it did not change their levels of likeability, intelligence, or kindness with other colors.

Another reason to wear red is because it is the most emotionally intense color as well as a symbol for love. When someone sees red, his or her heartbeat and breathing increases, which can trigger more feelings and hormones towards a person. Also red catches the most attention when one person is wearing it in a crowd, which could help zone in the special person to get all of their attention. Another color that goes along with Valentine’s Day is pink, which actually has the opposite effect that red does. Pink is more tranquilizing and will calm your nervous.

If you’re absolutely positive that cutesy holidays aren’t your thing then make sure you at least wear red for the (RED) campaign that raises awareness for HIV and AIDS programs in Africa. 100% of the money that they raise go to the program and has already helped 40 million people. You can help this cause by buying a (RED) product, donating or even wearing red to help raise awareness for this wonderful cause and help end AIDS.

If you’re out and trying to catch that special someone’s eye or even just chilling at home and want to get into the spirit of the holiday, wear red, my friends. This color has powers that could turn your life upside down with just simply slipping into your favorite red jeans or scarlet sweater! Even just wearing red to help a cause will spread more love around the world than you think!