ABC News: Makeup makes women seem more competent, study says
Wearing makeup has a significant impact on how people perceive women, making women seem more attractive,
competent, likable and trustworthy, according to new research published this week.
Researchers at Procter & Gamble, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston University and the
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute showed study participants photos of women either wearing no makeup or wearing one
of three different cosmetic looks -- natural, professional or glamorous.
In the first study, subjects were first shown images of women, who were of different ages and ethnicities, for 250
milliseconds. In a second study, a different set of study subjects looked at the same photos for an unlimited amount of
time so they could carefully inspect each face.
Study participants then rated the women in terms of competence, likability, attractiveness and trustworthiness.
"We found that when faces were shown very quickly, all ratings went up with cosmetics in all different looks," said
Nancy Etcoff, lead author and associate researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital. "The women were judged as
more competent, likable, attractive and trustworthy."
But when subjects had the chance to examine photos for a longer period of time, the same perceptions didn't carry
over.
"When they got to the more dramatic makeup looks, people saw them as equally likable and much more attractive and
competent, but less trustworthy," Etcoff said. "Dramatic makeup was no longer an advantage compared to when
people saw the photos very quickly."
Etcoff said the study findings should serve as a message to women that cosmetics could have an impact on how people
perceive them in ways beyond physical attractiveness.
"In situations where a perceiver is under a high cognitive load or under time pressure, he or she is more likely to rely
on such automatic judgments for decision-making," the authors wrote. "Facial images appear on ballots, job
applications, web sites and dating sites."
Preference Begins During Infancy
"This phenomenon is present from birth," said Tiffany Field, a research professor at the University of Miami's Miller
School of Medicine. Field was not involved in the cosmetics research. "Even newborns and young infants have a
preference for attractive faces."
"One of the most discriminating features is the contrast effect," she added. As they add more makeup, there is more of
a contrast effect -- the eyes are drawn out, the eyebrows and lips are in greater contrast. That's probably why
newborns and infants can show a preference."
Despite the findings, experts say it's important for women to be comfortable wearing as much makeup as they want,
even if that means none at all.
"This study shows that cosmetics enhance how others perceive your beauty, but there are other ways to feel
beautiful," said Ann Kearney-Cooke, director of the Cincinnati Psychotherapy Institute. "Your warmth, confidence and
energy attract others to you. There's nothing more attractive than a confident woman with a voice of her own, with
her own style that comfortable in her own skin."
Sources
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/cosmetics-make-women-likable-competent-trustworthy-attractivestudy/story?id=14659706#.UIlMlY7we0g
Etcoff NL, Stock S, Haley LE, Vickery SA, House DM (2011) Cosmetics as a Feature of the Extended Human Phenotype:
Modulation of the Perception of Biologically Important Facial Signals. PLoS ONE 6(10): e25656.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0025656
Questions
1.
What were the independent and dependent variables?
2.
All participants viewed all types of photos in the 250-ms study. What type of design is this?
3.
A different set of participants viewed the photos in the 250-ms study than in the unlimited time study. What type
of design is this?
4.
Why did the authors conduct the study under two conditions–250 ms of judgment as well as unlimited time? (as
you reread the article, look for the part about "cognitive pressure"). What do these conditions suggest about the
external validity of their findings?
5.
The faces used for the photos included women ages 20-50 who self-identified as either Caucasian, Hispanic, or
African American. The participants in the study (i.e. the people who viewed the faces) included men and women
of various ethnicities. All participants were from North America. Discuss the impact of these things on the
external validity of the findings.
6.
The women who posed for the photographs were not told what type of makeup was being applied, and no mirrors
were available for them to see how they looked.
a.
Why is this important?
b.
The women in the photos would have known whether they had makeup vs. no makeup on. Explain how
this might be a confounding variable.
7.
One of the authors worked in the cosmetics department of Proctor and Gamble (i.e. she worked for a company
that manufactures cosmetics). In what ways might this be useful or problematic?
8.
The authors randomized the order in which the photos were presented. Why was it important to do this?
9.
The participants who viewed the photographs probably differed in the amount and type of makeup they wore
and/or preferred others to wear. Is this a problem for this experiment? Explain.
10. If you wanted to examine the construct validity of the dependent variable, what questions should you ask?
11. How could the authors make use of a pilot study to ensure that the different types of makeup really do coincide
with their labels (e.g. “natural” makeup really is perceived as natural).