Why Women Wear High Heels: Evolution, Lumbar Curvature, and Attractiveness

Abstract

Despite the widespread use of high-heeled footwear in both developing and modernized societies, we lack an understanding of this behavioral phenomenon at both proximate and distal levels of explanation. The current manuscript advances and tests a novel, evolutionarily anchored hypothesis for why women wear high heels, and provides convergent support for this hypothesis across multiple methods. Using a recently discovered evolved mate preference, we hypothesized that high heels influence women’s attractiveness via effects on their lumbar curvature. Independent studies that employed distinct methods, eliminated multiple confounds, and ruled out alternative explanations showed that when women wear high heels, their lumbar curvature increased and they were perceived as more attractive. Closer analysis revealed an even more precise pattern aligning with human evolved psychology: high-heeled footwear increased women’s attractiveness only when wearing heels altered their lumbar curvature to be closer to an evolutionarily optimal angle. These findings illustrate how human evolved psychology can contribute to and intersect with aspects of cultural evolution, highlighting that the two are not independent or autonomous processes but rather are deeply intertwined.

Using Sexual Selection Theories to Examine Contextual Variation in Heterosexual Women’s Orientation Toward High Heels

“…Our studies suggest that individual differences in women's responses to heeled shoes can be examined using sexual selection theories. Consistent with our prediction that a high heel is a costly signal (e.g., Saad, 2013) used to augment female attractiveness (Guéguen, 2015;Morris et al, 2013; see also Lewis et al, 2017 for recent evidence) among effective competitors for mates (Vaillancourt, 2013), attractive women were more likely to choose higher-heeled shoes under time limit than their less attractive peers were. By contrast, women's own attractiveness did not predict the proportion of lower-heeled shoes they chose under time limit, even though the two image sets were equivalent in attractiveness.…”

Decreased Vertical Trunk Inclination Angle and Pelvic Inclination as the Result of Mid-High-Heeled Footwear on Static Posture Parameters in Asymptomatic Young Adult Women

“…However, in the literature, high-heeled shoes were not always found as the factor that increases the forward inclination of the body, its asymmetry [11], and pelvic anteversions [15] that may lead to an uneconomic body position [8,9]. Some studies [1,9,20,106] have suggested that high heels induce a vertical integration in the sacrum, pelvic tilt and lumbar adjustment due to increased activity of the hamstring muscles to counteract the abnormal gravity line. A small to moderate effect of high-heeled shoes was observed on static and dynamic pelvic positions (sagittal pelvic tilt and axial pelvic rotation) in females habituated to the use of high-heeled footwear [4].…”

“…The perception of a woman’s physical appearance by other people (both female and male) is significantly dependent on the type of footwear she is wearing. Wearing high-heeled shoes belongs to women’s social behavior that increases the attractiveness, elegance, and even self-confidence of women [1,2]. Over 50% of women wear high-heeled shoes for 1–8 h per day, and at least one-third of women in western countries wear high-heeled shoes daily [3].…”

Physical cues of partner quality

“…Women's dyadic sexual desire (i.e., an interest in, or a wish to engage in, sexual activity with another person, and desire for sharing and intimacy with that person) predicts their inclination to buy high-heeled rather than low-heeled shoes (Watkins & Leitch, 2020). Using high-heeled footwear modifies women's lumbar curvature and gait to be more appealing to men (Lewis et al, 2017;Morris, White, Morrison, & Fisher, 2013). Clothing, above and beyond its own signalling value, can thus be used to augment evolved physiological features in such a way as to appear more attractive to the opposite sex.…”