RESEARCHCENTRE: Wearing lipstick will boost much more than your looks – Study

We all know that a dash of lipstick will brighten up your face even on your dullest day. Findings of an interesting new study suggest that wearing lipstick can improve not only a woman’s self-worth but also how smart she believes she is. Wearing make-up will not only make a woman feel smarter, it might actually make her smarter.

For the study, researchers from Harvard Medical School put the lipstick effect to test. The lipstick effect is a psychological phenomenon in which a woman gets a confidence boost when she wears make-up. They divided female undergraduate students into groups and then took them through a series of tests. These included answering multiples choice questions about a chapter in a psychology book.

Before they took this test, all study subjects underwent a mood boosting exercise. One group of students applied make-up, another listened to positive uplifting music while another coloured the drawing of a human face.
They found that women who wear lipstick gain cognitive benefits from it.

They also observed psychological benefits that have women experiencing a boost in self-esteem, attitude and even personality. Interestingly, the positive effects of wearing lipstick were found to be deeper and longer lasting than other mood boosting tactics like listening to music.

The group of women wearing make-up outperformed all the others in the test. Make-up, it seems, can actually improve academic if not career performance.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT

The article titled Does Make-up Make You Smarter? has been published in the journal Cogent Psychology.

Usually, make-up enhances a woman’s best features thus wearing it will make a woman feel more attractive and in turn, this will boost her self-esteem. Along with confidence, make-up can also boost cognition. “In line with our predictions, we found a significant effect of make-up on a multiple choice test performance with scores being significantly higher compared to those obtained after listening to positive music and colouring a face,” the study authors write.

The researchers conclude that the lipstick effect, which has been doubted in the past and which has been termed as sexist, to be true. While wearing make-up isn’t the only way to boost confidence or performance, the researchers note that it is the most effective. From these findings, they hope that more studies can be done to determine how these effects can be made to last.