Science Proves Women Wear More Makeup Than They Need To
Ladies, the next time you leave the house thinking “I should really apply another coat of mascara,” or “I could totally use more concealer on those blemishes,” don’t. Just don’t. The only person who wants to see you wearing that much make up,
according
to science, is you.
A study in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology took 44 women in their early 20s and asked them to apply a wide range of “best-selling” makeup materials as if they were getting ready for a night out. The researchers took pictures of the women’s faces before and after, and, in the end, created a 21-image-long progression of photos of each woman’s face as she
applied
more and more makeup. They then showed the individual progressions to Bangor University students, who were asked to select which photo in each progression they thought was most attractive, which photo they believed most women would find attractive, and which photo they believed most men would find attractive. Needless to say, the perceived views and the actual views were totally off.
Across the board, everyone agreed in their belief that men would find women more attractive the further along those women were in the makeup
application
process. But, it turns out, they were wrong: The men all chose women wearing less makeup than they were in the final photographs as the most attractive. In fact, female participants on average preferred more makeup on the photographed women than the male participants did. However, in general, most of the photo selectors agreed that the women were the most attractive when they had less makeup on than those women had deemed appropriate for a night out. Final results showed that people preferred the women to be wearing about 60% as much makeup as they had actually applied.
And it’s not the first time we’ve learned that the female obsession with appearance is driven by a pressure that seems to originate from the media, and not from other human beings: A 1985 study found that women believed men wanted them to be thinner than they actually did and vice-versa -- men believed women wanted them to be more muscle-y than they actually did. The researchers discovered that this misperception was only harmful to women: “Overall, men’s perceptions serve to keep them satisfied with their figures, whereas women’s perceptions place pressure on them to
lose weight
.” If any of that rings a bell, you may recall a DailyMail infographic that circulated the Internet, with a headline reading “Men Love Kim Kardashian’s Curves While Women Want Emma Watson’s Slim Hips: Infographic Shows the Sexes Have VERY Different Ideas About the Body.” That headline really says it all.
[PIc via Wikimiedia Commons - Mark J Sebastian]
