This study investigated whether women are catcalled more frequently when wearing a conservative outfit. Six female participants recorded 25 hours of walking data in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We found that the converse is true: catcalling is more frequent when wearing a revealing outfit, particularly when showing more skin and when the top is more revealing. This seems intuitive, but it is counter to my hypothesis based on anecdotal experiences of being catcalled when wearing conservative outfits (likely an example of attention bias). The results imply that women can affect how much catcalling attention they receive by selecting a more conservative or revealing outfit.

<p>This study investigated whether women are catcalled more frequently when wearing a conservative outfit. Six female participants recorded 25 hours of walking data in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We found that the converse is true: catcalling is more frequent when wearing a revealing outfit, particularly when showing more skin and when the top is more revealing. This seems intuitive, but it is counter to my hypothesis based on anecdotal experiences of being catcalled when wearing conservative outfits (likely an example of attention bias). The results imply that women can affect how much catcalling attention they receive by selecting a more conservative or revealing outfit.</p>

Catcalling is up to 6x more frequent when wearing a more revealing outfit