Facial Makeup: Textual Analysis

In the journal article titled “The Effect of Facial Makeup on the Frequency of Drivers Stopping for Hitchhikers”, (Psychological Reports) the main researchers Nicolas Gueguen and Lubomir Lamy (2013) further examine the physical implications makeup has on indiviuals. Specifically, their article focuses on a study they conducted to assess whether a woman wearing make-up is more likely to get picked up when hitchhiking as opposed to a woman wearing no make-up based on the fact that cosmetic use increases physical attractiveness. The hypotheses posed by the researchers states that “female hitchhikers” wearing full “facial makeup” will have a “positive medium effect on male motorists’ behavior” as well as “no statistically significant effect on

The purpose of this textual analysis is to further examine the experiment and its results in order to assess the project’s validity. I will summarize, analyze, and evaluate the project carried out by Gueguen and Lamy in order to critique the overall results.

Influenced by the research gathered from various published sources, Gueguen and Lamy (2013) came to believe that a “pretty face”, or a women with a face of full make-up can have more impact on people’s behavior than a women with a “bare face” who wears no make-up. To test if this was true, Gueguen and Lamy decided to see what kind of attention a female hitchhiker with a full face of make-up would receive compared to a female hitchhiker with a no make-up on her face. First, the researchers gathered the confederates for this experiment (Gueguen &Lamy, 2013). “Four Caucasian women” between the ages of 20 and 22 volunteered and were selected due to the fact that they were rated as having “average physical attractiveness” in a previous study by “24 male students” (Gueguen &Lamy, 2013, p. 99). The selected women volunteers, or confederates, were also brunettes

The total number of motorists that stopped for the hitchhikers was 1,600. Out of that total, 959 were men and 641 were women (Gueguen &Lamy, 2013). The results in this study stated 24% of men and 10% of women stopped for a confederate with a full face of make-up (Gueguen &Lamy, 2013). Only 15% of men and seven percent of women motorists stopped for a confederate with no make-up on their face (Gueguen &Lamy, 2013). These results were enough to conclude the hypothesis of Gueguen and Lamy (2013) to be accurate. The purpose of this entire study, according to the main researchers, was to “measure the behavioral effects women’s facial make-up” can have on other individuals in a setting other than a laboratory (Gueguen &Lamy, 2013, p.97). The introduction of this article mentions how a plethora of research has been accumulated throughout several studies that support the idea that facial cosmetics have the ability to increase a women’s attractiveness. It has been noted both men and women will perceive a lady’s appearance to be improved, and her motifs positive when wearing make-up. This notion has only been tested in controlled laboratory environments, and it is this precise quality that influenced Gueguen and Lamy