Finding love in your lipstick
BY KELSEY LYONS
Lipstick is a girl’s best friend, especially in hard times.
In the 2008 financial meltdown, top cosmetic company L’Oréal revealed that when the rest of the economy was suffering, their sales were rising by 5.3 per cent.
Journalists noticed this particular trend and called it the “Lipstick Effect,” which led to a series of psychology experiments.
Sarah Hill, associate professor in the Psychology Department of Texas Christian University helped lead this experiment.
One of Hill’s graduate students, Hannah Bradshaw says the lipstick effect proved that during economic recessions, spending on beauty-enhancing products increases, while sales of other products decrease.
One of the experiments showed that men and women react differently to news of an economic recession.
“They found that priming men and women with economic recessions made women report an increased desire to spend money on products that would enhance their attractiveness,” said Bradshaw. “They also found that women’s increased desire to spend money on attractiveness-enhancing products was driven by women’s desire to attract mates.”
Women would rather spend $10 on a new lipstick, than spend $400 on a new dress. Both are capable of enhancing a woman’s appearance, but the lipstick is a cheap pick-me-up.
It’s been proven through research that when a man is attracted to a woman he’ll watch her lips and if you have on a lip colour, say red, you’ll catch a man’s eye because red is different and interesting.
Therefore women will resort to spending money on lipstick to increase their chances in finding love.
This phenomenon may seem unbelievable and a load of quack but it’s proven to be true and goes back to the history of women’s mating psychology.
During periods of an economic recession women see the potential of finding a desirable mate scarce, and they use resources such as lipstick to get a man’s attention.
This goes further than the 2008 meltdown, it comes from times such as the Great Depression.
Remember that classic couple photo of the man in a military uniform and woman in a pretty dress reunited after the war? Wars are known for moments of the most intense romance.
During war time women are looking for quality mates who have good genes and are able to support a family.
However, during times of an economic recession, men with good qualities are much scarcer and women need to compete fiercely for a richer man’s attention.
In order for a woman to attract such a man they feel they need to wear products that enhance their natural beauty, such as lipstick.
The lipstick effect could very well be just that women simply splurge on cosmetics in general, not just lipstick.
Women aren’t just wearing makeup to impress men, but they also wear it for themselves, when they want to feel pretty.
This experiment may have been incredibly accurate years ago, and yes in 2008 (it was proven so by the numbers given by L’Oréal) but times are changing and makeup is more than just about finding the right mate, the lipstick effect is also about the empowerment of women.
Women wear makeup because they want to feel good, they want to look in the mirror and smile.
More related to this:
