Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Environmental and Earth Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
PLoS One. 2020 Mar 10;15(3):e0229162. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229162. eCollection 2020.
Can beautification empower women to act assertively? Some women report that beautification is an agentic and assertive act, whereas others find beautification to be oppressive and disempowering. To disentangle these effects, in the context of romantic attraction we conducted the first experimental tests of beautification-on psychological and behavioral assertiveness. Experiment 1 (N = 145) utilized a between-subjects design in which women used their own clothing, make-up, and accessories to adjust their appearance as they normally would for a "hot date" (beautification condition) or a casual day at home with friends (control condition). We measured implicit, explicit, and behavioral assertiveness, as well as positive affect and sexual motivation. Experiment 2 (N = 40) sought to conceptually replicate Experiment 1 using a within-subject design and different measures of assertiveness. Women completed measures of explicit assertiveness and assertive behavioral intentions in three domains, in whatever clothing they were wearing that day then again after extensively beautifying their appearance. In Experiment 1, we found that women demonstrated higher psychological assertiveness after beautifying their appearance, and that high sexual motivation mediated the effect of beautification on assertive behavior. All effects were independent of positive affect. Experiment 2 partially replicated Experiment 1. These experiments provide novel insight into the effects of women's appearance-enhancing behaviors on assertiveness by providing evidence that beautification may positively affect assertiveness in women under some circumstances.
美容能否赋予女性自信地行动的能力？一些女性报告说，美容是一种有主见和自信的行为，而另一些女性则认为美容是一种压迫和削弱力量的行为。为了厘清这些影响，在浪漫吸引力的背景下，我们首次进行了关于美容对心理和行为自信影响的实验测试。实验 1（N=145）采用了被试间设计，女性可以使用自己的服装、化妆品和配饰来调整自己的外表，就像她们通常为“浪漫约会”（美容条件）或与朋友在家的休闲日（对照条件）那样。我们测量了内隐、外显和行为自信，以及积极情绪和性动机。实验 2（N=40）试图使用被试内设计和不同的自信测量方法复制实验 1。女性在穿着当天的衣服时完成了三个领域的外显自信和自信行为意图的测量，然后在精心打扮后再次进行测量。在实验 1 中，我们发现女性在美化外表后表现出更高的心理自信，而高性动机中介了美容对自信行为的影响。所有影响都独立于积极情绪。实验 2 部分复制了实验 1。这些实验通过提供证据表明，在某些情况下，美容可能会对女性的自信产生积极影响，从而为女性的外表增强行为对自信的影响提供了新的见解。
