CosBeauty Magazine #85

Blonde vs brunette
It’s an age-old debate that had even Charles
Darwin stumped – he couldn’t find any
acceptable reason men might prefer blondes.
Since Darwin’s time, however, there have
been a few advancements in the science behind
hair preference.
Blonde hair is thought to be an indicator of
youth and sexual vitality, but a recent study,
which attempted to determine the most beautiful
woman in the world, picked a brunette, and
a 2011 study in the Scandinavian Journal
of Psychology found brunettes are generally
considered more attractive.
Makeup &
attraction
Women who wear makeup appear
more trustworthy, likeable and
competent – not to mention
attractive – to those around them, or
so a relatively recent study tells us.
‘As we have evolved, the brain has
become capable of making complex
social judgments on some very basic
visual cues,’ says Dr Arnaud Aubert,
an experimental psychologist and
associate professor in the department
of neurosciences at the Universitè
François-Rabelais, France.
These visual cues typically revolve
around the idea of attractiveness and
trustworthiness, elements that the
right style of makeup can certainly
assist with. ‘First you see the face and
then, after a quick visual decoding,
a signal is relayed to the limbic area
of the brain where an emotional
level is assigned to what you have
seen – either pleasant or unpleasant,’
Dr Aubert says. ‘This information
is then translated to the forebrain
where it’s decided whether the face
is trustworthy or untrustworthy.
The whole process is carried out
almost instantaneously.’
By minimising flaws and enhancing
our best features, makeup – when
applied effectively – can make for a
more “pleasant” translation process.
Highlighter and illuminator, for
instance, can detract from a larger
nose, while the right shade of lip
colour can go a long way in boosting
that first impression.
‘All the social information is in
the centre of the face,’ Dr Aubert
explains. ‘If the brain is distracted by
imperfections, it processes less and so
has a weaker social assessment of the
person it is looking at.’
A study conducted by Harvard
University with Proctor and
Gamble supports Aubert’s findings.
Participants of the study were asked
to rate how likeable, trustworthy and
competent particular women were,
based on their makeup. They were
presented with images of women
with no makeup, and then the same
women made up in different ways –
natural, professional and glamorous.
One participant group was shown
the images for a couple of seconds
and the other group could inspect the
images for as long as they liked.
Lead author and assistant clinical
professor of psychology at Harvard
University, Nancy Etcoff explains
the effects of makeup were the same,
regardless of length of exposure.
‘When flashed quickly, every
cosmetic look significantly increased
how attractive, competent, likeable
and trustworthy the faces appeared to
the same faces without makeup,’ she
says. ‘When people could look at the
faces as long as they wanted to, all
makeup looks increased competence
and attractiveness once again.’ CBM
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