A new psychology study reveals no sex differences in beauty investments
Unveiling the curtain on societal norms, a recent psychology study challenges the conventional wisdom about beauty investments. It suggests that gender does not dictate the amount of time, money, and effort invested in enhancing physical attractiveness.
Differences between men and women in terms of beauty-enhancing behaviors
While women invest more time on cosmetic usage, men spend more time exercising and bodybuilding
- The increased media attention to the male physique over the past few decades converges with evolutionary theories that emphasize the role of male upper body strength in intra- and inter-sexual competition
- Women have more favorable attitudes toward muscular (vs. non-muscular) men, which could explain why men are more interested in their muscularity
Future directions
Future research could investigate what a cause is and what is a consequence
- Being attractive could be linked to intensified self-care, or being beautiful could lead to increased efforts to preserve one’s beautifulness
- Sex differences in physical attractiveness are often overlooked in studies of masculinity
Ways to achieve a good look vary between both sexes
While in general women focus on stereotypically female activities that increase their appeal, men may be more interested in more masculine activities, such as bodybuilding or even caring for their hair
- When we narrow the definition of beauty-enhancing behaviors only to those stereotypically perceived as female, unsurprisingly, women appear to spend more time improving their looks.
- However, when we broaden the definition to include activities stereotypically connected with masculinity, like cardio or physical exercise, the sex difference might decrease or even disappear!”
Study limitations
The sample size warrants caution when drawing any general conclusions. Therefore, future studies should investigate this matter on larger and more diverse samples.
- To address the limitations of this study, her team and I conducted large cross-cultural research on physical-enhancing behaviors.