It's 50 percent More likely for a woman wearing heels than a flat-shoed woman to have a man pick up a dropped glove, said scientists from the Université de Bretagne-Sud.

Raised shoes, however, had an unglamourous beginning; they were first worn by Egyptian butchers, who donned platforms to avoid treading in bloody offal.

Although high heels were worn for centuries in the Ottoman Empire and in Persia for horseback riding, they only minced into the West in the 1500s, when they were associated with imperial power.

Such was the allure that a person with status or wealth became referred to as "well-heeled."