Should You Ditch Your Makeup? Cosmetics Play Only Small Role in Overall Beauty, Study
Christopher Philip
Over 80% of women over the age of 18 wear cosmetics. Facial alterations by women with the help of cosmetics are nearly universal around the world. Cosmetics represent a more than $130 billion industry.
However, research conducted by Alex Jones, Gettysburg College, and Robin Kramer, University of Aberdeen, UK, suggest that cosmetics play a much smaller role in overall attractiveness than generally assumed.
In fact, according to their results, it only explains a measly 2% of the variance in attractiveness between those wearing cosmetics and those who do not.
The design of the research was simple; raters examined images of models with and without makeup and provided an attractiveness score. Raters viewed only one image from each model, either wearing cosmetics or not wearing cosmetics.
While the results showed that makeup only explained 2% of the variance in attractiveness, cosmetics, as shown in other studies, still helped boost attractiveness scores overall.
In other words, cosmetics do in fact help women look more beautiful, but other factors are more important.
What are those factors?
“Identity” – the actual model in question mattered much more than the cosmetics she wore.
Your face matters more than your makeup. Image of face with and without makeup.
It was found that differences between individuals was a much bigger factor, in fact, the actual model herself rather than her makeup accounted for a 34.5 times larger effect.
While makeup accounted for some of the variation in attractiveness (2%), it was the actual face which mattered most (69%).
Why are cosmetics not effective in boosting attractiveness ratings?
In an email, Jones clarified that perhaps cosmetics are not particularly effective at masking imperfections in skin texture or colouration, or that other cues to attractiveness such as symmetry, averages, femininity, and so forth can not be influenced by cosmetics. Other factors to attractiveness may include nonverbals such as head tilt or posture, even subtle smiling may play a role. However, as these factors are “unexplained” by the research, they are merely speculation.
So while the research suggests that cosmetics play a minor role in contributing to overall attractiveness, one might wonder why the bother at all.
We asked Jones if women should ditch their makeup. “No, not at all,” he said, “It still influences attractiveness – models were rated consistently more attractive with makeup. Nobody looked worse with it!”
“Our message is that it doesn’t make you as attractive as you think. From a body image perspective it’s an interesting finding, since some people feel like they can’t leave the house without makeup. Our results show that it’s not going to transform your attractiveness from what you already are.”
We wondered if makeup use could be the result of competition against other women.
Jones responded by saying that other studies are forthcoming which show that women who wear makeup are seen as more dominant by others. “There is a wealth of research showing women are rated as more socially positive with makeup – competent, trustworthy, healthier, looking as though they earn more money, even.”
He clarified that wearing makeup may also present some negative consequences that come from a desire to compete and that future research will be looking at such matters.
Resources
Jones, Alex L and Robin S. S. Kramer. Facial Cosmetics Have Little Effect on Attractiveness Judgments Compared With Identity. 2019. In Press. doi:10.1068/p7904