Women wearing heavy makeup less likely to be perceived as leaders: study
Computer software was used to manipulate the faces and the amount of makeup was also manipulated in the face images.
Women wearing heavy makeup are less likely to be thought of as good leaders, a study has found.
The research, published in the journal Perception, revealed that the amount of makeup a woman is wearing can have a negative impact on perceptions of her leadership ability.
"This study follows previous work in this area, which suggests that wearing makeup enhances how dominant a woman looks," said Christopher Watkins from Abertay University in the UK.
"While the previous findings suggest that we are inclined to show some deference to a woman with a good looking face, our new research suggests that makeup does not enhance a woman's dominance by benefitting how we evaluate her in a leadership role," Watkins said.
Participants were asked to view a series of images featuring the same woman without cosmetics and with makeup applied for a "social night out".
Computer software was used to manipulate the faces and the amount of makeup was also manipulated in the face images.
Each participant completed a face perception task where they judged sixteen face-pairs, indicating how much better a leader they felt their chosen face to be compared to the other face.
It was found that both men and women evaluated women more negatively as a leader if the image suggested she was wearing a lot of makeup.