London – Putting on make-up may help a woman feel ready to face the day – but it seems it won’t actually do much to make her more attractive.
Natural looks are much more important when it comes to how pretty a woman is perceived to be by both sexes, a study has found.
University of York psychologist Robin Kramer, who worked on the research, said: ‘The point is you are what you are. While make-up does make women slightly more attractive to others, it barely does anything when compared to natural features.
‘If you put make-up on an unattractive woman it won’t make her more attractive than a pretty woman without make-up. Your features and identity determine attractiveness and there is not much you can do about it.’
The study involved 44 female undergraduates, aged 18 to 21, who were each photographed with and without their make-up.
The photographs were shown at random to another 62 students – both male and female – who were asked to rate the women on a scale of one to seven, with one being very unattractive and seven being very attractive.
They were shown either the ‘before’ or ‘after’ photograph but never both, so they could not compare two images of the same woman. The ratings were then analysed and the results showed that make-up accounted for a mere 2 percent variation in who was or was not deemed attractive – while the woman’s general attractiveness, features or identity was much more important, accounting for 69 per cent.
In other words, the natural variation in faces and attractiveness of a woman far overshadowed the application of make-up when it came to how their looks were rated.
The results go some way to explaining why models and celebrities often appear just as appealing without make-up as they do when dolled up for the red carpet. The study, carried out at Bangor University, North Wales, is due to be published in the psychology journal, Perception, this week.
Dr Alex Jones of Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, USA, who also contributed to the research, added: ‘There are many reasons that women might wear make-up, and one of those reasons might be dissatisfaction with their appearance.
‘Body image concerns are very prevalent in modern society, and we have shown previously that less make-up is considered more attractive. The take-home message here seems to be that, for better or worse, our attractiveness is mostly determined by our natural appearance, and wearing make-up will only have a small effect in comparison.’
Daily Mail