I don't believe it.

From the Improbable Research website:

Why women wear high heels (new study)

January 11th, 2018

“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.”

Prompting the development a new (experimentally-tested) hypothesis by David M. G. Lewis, Eric M. Russell, Laith Al-Shawaf, Vivian Ta, Zeynep Senveli, William Ickes and David M. Buss, presented in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, Nov. 2017.

“[…] 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.”

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

Note: The authors cite the work of Ig Nobel Physics Prize winners (2009) Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, USA, Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University, USA, and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, USA, for analytically determining why pregnant women don’t tip over. Ref. “Fetal Load and the Evolution of Lumbar Lordosis in Bipedal Hominins,” Nature, vol. 450, 1075-1078 (December 13, 2007).

Also see: Heel thyself (The Guardian, Nov. 2014)

Why I don't believe it: The hypothesis is centered on only one of the two sexes. As far as I could tell, the researchers didn't even consider why men wear/have worn high heels. According to a BBC posting, Why did men stop wearing high heels?:

....

"The high heel was worn for centuries throughout the near east as a form of riding footwear," says Elizabeth Semmelhack of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.

Good horsemanship was essential to the fighting styles of Persia - the historical name for modern-day Iran.

"When the soldier stood up in his stirrups, the heel helped him to secure his stance so that he could shoot his bow and arrow more effectively," says Semmelhack.

At the end of the 16th Century, Persia's Shah Abbas I had the largest cavalry in the world. He was keen to forge links with rulers in Western Europe to help him defeat his great enemy, the Ottoman Empire.

So in 1599, Abbas sent the first Persian diplomatic mission to Europe - it called on the courts of Russia, Germany and Spain.

A wave of interest in all things Persian passed through Western Europe. Persian style shoes were enthusiastically adopted by aristocrats, who sought to give their appearance a virile, masculine edge that, it suddenly seemed, only heeled shoes could supply.

Image caption Louis XIV wearing his trademark heels in a 1701 portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud

As the wearing of heels filtered into the lower ranks of society, the aristocracy responded by dramatically increasing the height of their shoes - and the high heel was born.

In the muddy, rutted streets of 17th Century Europe, these new shoes had no utility value whatsoever - but that was the point.

"One of the best ways that status can be conveyed is through impracticality," says Semmelhack, adding that the upper classes have always used impractical, uncomfortable and luxurious clothing to announce their privileged status.

"They aren't in the fields working and they don't have to walk far."

When it comes to history's most notable shoe collectors, the Imelda Marcos of his day was arguably Louis XIV of France. For a great king, he was rather diminutively proportioned at only 5ft 4in (1.63m).

He supplemented his stature by a further 4in (10cm) with heels, often elaborately decorated with depictions of battle scenes.

....

Although Europeans were first attracted to heels because the Persian connection gave them a macho air, a craze in women's fashion for adopting elements of men's dress meant their use soon spread to women and children.

"In the 1630s you had women cutting their hair, adding epaulettes to their outfits," says Semmelhack.

"They would smoke pipes, they would wear hats that were very masculine. And this is why women adopted the heel - it was in an effort to masculinise their outfits."

From that time, Europe's upper classes followed a unisex shoe fashion until the end of the 17th Century, when things began to change again.

It is my hypothesis that, like some of the men of old, women took to wearing high heels to give them more stature (figuratively and literally) within the population. I know it gives me a crick in my neck to constantly be looking up to people who are much taller than am I. For whatever reason (some reasons make sense, others are nonsense), people equate height with greatness. Physical height is desirable. Never mind that it would be much easier to feed a human population that includes no one taller than five feet: We must have height!

I leave you with this titillating thought (you may go to the above BBC article to learn how they got from the above paragraphs to the following one):

Semmelhack, author of Heights of Fashion: A History of the Elevated Shoe, believes that [...an] association with pornography led to high heels being seen as an erotic adornment for women.

Comments

[bogie]

Well, guys don't really wear what is considered a high heel. Usually guys wear 1" or less. That height can be more utilitarian for everything from use of stirrups, motorcycle and bicycle pegs, and even giving better balance on ice (leaning you a bit forward to get the weight off the heels). Also heels help take the wear and tear off the heal portion of the shoe, which is the part that normally gets the most punishment in everyday life. It is very rare that I see heels over 1/2" on a guy.

Women's heels are ridiculously high and do emphasize and even improve the looks of the butt, stomach and bust (use of "improve" as in uplifting). Additionally, looking taller also "slims" thighs to the eye.

In my unscientific research, called just looking at people in everyday life, those that fuss more with their hair, cosmetics and clothing are more prone to use high heels than those of who have a more natural approach (or can't be bothered). And, the former are the women who garner the most attention from the opposite sex (positive attention anyway).

[Cop Car]

Thanks for another perspective, Bogie. I would agree with "ridiculously high"; but, I also think that men are sneakier when it comes to adding height through wearing shoes that are furtive in their lifting. I see ads for shoes that add up to 5" in height, through lifts.

I wanted to measure your dad's Lucchese boot heels; but, cannot find them. I think we must have sent them to pasture sometime in the past few years. They added at least 2" to his height - and he was already 7" taller than was I. One of the late volunteers with whom we worked wore "dance boots" that had a heel of about 4" - I'm guessing. I will give the guys this: Men's heels are not spindly!

You may recall that your Grandmother H liked to wear platform shoes that added height without pitching her center-of-gravity so far forward. Of course, she (at 5' 2") was a foot shorter than your Grandfather H. There was also a considerable difference between your Grandmother S (at 4' 11") and your Grandfather S (at 5' 10" - I'm guessing). Let's not even talk about the difference between Helen & Mike!

[Ole Phat Stu]

I don't like it when girls wear stiletto heels,
they tend to rip holes in the sheets ;-)

[Cop Car]

Stu--That is between you and SWMBO!

[Ingineer66]

I live in horse and cattle country and guys wear cowboy boots with a heel, but nobody else does. And you are not supposed to ride a horse with your heel touching the stirrup. You are supposed to ride with your toes on the stirrup and sit straight up. Now if you slipped, hopefully the heel will catch you, but is not suppose to rest there.

As for women’s high heels, I love how they make women’s legs look. I guess it is biology, because I don’t know why I like it, I just do. But I also think anything more than about a 4” heel is kind of silly to try to walk around in.

[Cop Car]

Ingineer--I read, during the research, that the heel on cowboy boots was especially helpful during roping. Never having worn cowboy boots or roped cattle, I'll let you experts tell me (thanks for the lesson!)

I don't think it is biology that you like how a woman's legs look in heels, but a learned association perhaps. Good grief! Have you tried 4" heels? They are ridiculous! Of course, as an old woman with bunions (which I blame on having worn 2.75" heels for a few years), I think anything over 1" is silly. I wore heels. Now I
pay the price!

P.S. to Stu: True stiletto heels are good for walking on ice; but, they don't need to be very tall.
P.P.S. Bogie is not allowed to rat on me about the high heels I wore to dances. They were probably 4".