Do men treat you better when you wear heels?

High heels were invented to stop your feet sliding out of stirrups when you’re horse riding – quite handy, really.

So how did they become such a point of contention, that the question of whether workplace dress codes could demand high heels was recently debated in Parliament?

As a young girl, I thought heels were the epitome of adulthood. Glamorous actresses, pop stars and supermodels always seemed to be wearing them. When you wore heels, you were no longer a girl, but a real woman.

But, boy, was I wrong.

Now, I feel like I became a grown-up when I wisely stopped wearing heels. Stopped abiding to silly fashion rules, and started wondering who I was doing it all for.

Anyway, what difference could it make? Why would anybody treat me differently just because I was walking around with my heels raised above my toes?

I decided to test it out for my new BBC Three show Putting It Out There. Do men react differently to me when I wear heels?

The experiment, external was originally carried out by a French sociologist, Nicolas Guéguen. He conducted a series of tests to see whether the height of a woman’s shoe influences a man’s behaviour towards her.

I’d spent four years at Imperial College doing physics experiments with a nuclear fusion reactor, so I thought I could handle this. Method: walk around with a clipboard, posing as a market researcher. First in flat shoes, then wearing 5inch high heels. Potential risks: falling flat on my face.

I hit the street with my boring flats and a survey on washing machine spin cycles.

Very few men, understandably, wanted to answer my boring questions. Personally, I try to avoid anyone with a clipboard like the plague. So this didn’t surprise me.

Then it was time to switch my shoes to high heels and attempt the exact same thing.

Within three seconds of my re-entrance to Carnaby Street, I had a guy willing to answer each and every one of my questions. (“What is your favourite spin cycle? Mine is 1200. What about the temperature?”)

The men were queuing up to chat. I couldn’t believe the difference. Even the crew was laughing in amazement as man after man walked up to talk to me – when all I had changed was the angle of my foot.

The feminist inside me was raging.

Studies have shown, external that heels accentuate our most 'feminine' traits, such as taking little dainty steps and swaying our hips. Also, your bum sticks out, so you look as though you’re inviting copulation.

Most of the men who approached me told me they weren’t even consciously aware of me wearing heels. Yet, the implication is that that the sexier I look, the more men are willing to talk to me.

But perhaps it’s not the men having a reaction to the heels. Maybe it’s me having a reaction to the heels. When I wear high heels, my mind conjures images of Victoria’s Secret models, oozing sex appeal.

A lifetime of cultural conditioning means I associate high heels with glamour, eroticism and womanliness. I feel sexier and more confident when I wear them. And maybe the men are responding to that.

Conclusion: throw out the heels and focus on rewiring my own brain to believe I’m equally sexy in flats.