If I told you a scientific fact, like…
Water can boil and freeze at the same time.
Would you be more likely to trust me now
Or if I was wearing makeup?
So, I normally wear make up – both when I’m making these videos and in real life,
and I’ve gotten some comments and lengthy emails about it... that even inspired a response
video from my friend Sally le Page.
So it’s made me wonder…
as someone who wants to help people learn things, does it matter?
Does it really matter if you wear makeup?
Now you may have heard about something called the halo effect.
It’s mentioned a lot in social psychology research and it’s a cognitive bias where
we assume people who are good at one thing will automatically be good at another – like
they’re wearing a halo.
There’s a halo effect of beauty too, where people who are rated as more attractive are
believed to have higher
Social skills
Confidence
And success.
Basically, super powers.
I’m like Wonder Woman over here
So if someone has one positive trait, it colours your perception of many of their traits.
And in studies of workplace environments, this can lead to some real world differences.
Researchers have found that attractive men and women are more likely to be hired, promoted
and earn higher salaries than unattractive individuals.
It’s called a “Beauty Premium” and a “Plainness Penalty”
It seems ridiculous.
But our decisions are not logical when cognitive bias is at play and the halo effect is one
of the most common biases.
We all have an inner jerk.
Sorry.
In another study that used a trust game, participants invested more money in people whose faces
were rated as trustworthy.
You judge if people are trustworthy within a fraction of a second – as fast as
100 ms – and features like a high inner eyebrow and prominent cheekbones are two of
the main trustworthy traits.
Sucks to have an untrustworthy face.
Emotional expressions like smiling help indicate that you’re trustworthy too.
Am I doing this right?
You can actually tell the difference between a real smile and a fake smile pretty accurately.
Though a big question with The Beauty Premium and Trustworthy faces is…how does makeup
influence our perception of beauty?
And then trustworthiness?
Luckily, there’s some research on this too.
This feels like too much liquid lipstick.
I’m only on coat 13.
In one study, participants were asked to rate the same female faces with or without makeup,
where the makeup style varied to be natural, professional or glamourous.
Now, the participants were shown the faces for a quarter of a second, as in, this quickly,
or for an unlimited inspection time, and they rated the faces for attractiveness, competence,
likeability and trustworthiness.
When the participants looked at the faces for a quarter of a second, the makeup had
a positive effect on everything.
The faces were rated as significantly
More attractive
More competent
More likeable
And more trustworthy
But when participants had a longer inspection time, things became more interesting.
More layered, if you will.
The effect of makeup on trust and likeability varied by the different looks.
For example, the glamourous makeup look increased attractiveness, while decreasing judgements
of trustworthiness.
But the inspection time of the faces didn’t change the positive effect makeup had on competence
or attractiveness.
The results suggest two things: The first I’ve mentioned here before – that we have
two modes of thinking, System 1 and System 2.
System 1 is fast and intuitive and System 2 is slow and considered.
We use system 1 thinking to form snap judgements, and it seems, this extends to how we judge
people wearing makeup.
This isn’t a big surprise, but it’s helpful for us to remember that our bias is more likely
to creep into our thought process when we’re using system 1 thinking.
The second is that our judgements of facial trustworthiness and attractiveness are partially
separable – Makeup led people to think a face was more trustworthy initially, but the
longer they looked at it, their judgements of trustworthiness and likeability became
more nuanced.
So we can say that cosmetics have a positive effect on attractiveness, though a more recent
study asked the question, “how large is this effect?”
Researchers compared the attractiveness ratings of people before and after wearing makeup
to differences in our individuals looks and the varying amount of makeup we use.
They found that the effect of makeup on attractiveness is small, and suggested that in our everyday
thinking, we may inflate the benefits of cosmetics.
Makeup may not have a huge impact on our trustworthiness, though like many effects in psychology it’s
nuanced: If it told you that water can boil and freeze at the same time, many subtle factors
contribute to weather you believe me: The environment I’m in, whether you like me,
the logic of my argument, what I’ve chosen to wear, my educational background, and even
my accent.
One benefit that is echoed by both scientific research and YouTube beauty gurus is that
makeup and fashion boost our confidence, this is an effect that can impact how likeable
and competent we feel.
Though in many situations where you want to appear credible, one thing to avoid is a super
glam look.
Particularly a super, super glam look.
I love the 100 layer challenge, but trying to do
it
is ridiculous.