An Initial Test of the Cosmetics Dehumanization Hypothesis: Heavy Makeup Diminishes Attributions of Humanness-Related Traits to Women

Bernard, Philippe; Content, J; Servais, Laurent; Wollast, Robin; Gervais, Sarah J.

doi:10.1007/s11199-019-01115-y

Cited by 22 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Moreover, physical appearance has been linked to dehumanization through facial width ( Deska et al. , 2018 ), obesity ( Kersbergen and Robinson, 2019 ) and even use of cosmetics ( Bernard et al. , 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognizing humanity: dehumanization predicts neural mirroring and empathic accuracy in face-to-face interactions

Simon

Gutsell

2021

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

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Dehumanization is the failure to recognize the cognitive and emotional complexities of the people around us. While its presence has been well documented in horrific acts of violence, it is also theorized to play a role in everyday life. We measured its presence and effects in face-to-face dyadic interactions between strangers and found that not only was there variance in the extent to which they perceived one another as human, but this variance predicted neural processing and behavior. Specifically, participants showed stronger neural mirroring, indexed by EEG mu-suppression, in response to partners they evaluated as more human, suggesting their brains neurally simulated those targets’ actions more. Participants were also marginally more empathically accurate about the emotions of partners deemed more human and performed better with them on a cooperative task. These results suggest that there are indeed differences in our recognition of the humanity of people we meet—demonstrated for the first time in a real, face-to-face interaction—and that this mundane variation affects our ability to neurally simulate, cooperate, and empathize.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognizing humanity: dehumanization predicts neural mirroring and empathic accuracy in face-to-face interactions

Simon

Gutsell

2021

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

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“…According to objectification theory, Western women live in a society that emphasizes beauty and appearance (Bernard and Wollast 2019;Bernard et al 2020;Fredrickson and Roberts 1997). In line with this theory, a plethora of literature has revealed the treatment of women as sex objects in media (for a state of empirical research, see Ward 2016) and interpersonal interactions (Kozee et al 2007).…”

Section: How Self-compassion Moderates the Relation Between Body Survmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Self-Compassion Moderates the Relation Between Body Surveillance and Body Shame Among Men and Women

et al. 2020

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Objectives: According to objectification theory, being treated as an object leads people, especially women, to perceive themselves as objects. This self-objectification increases body surveillance and feelings of body shame. While this relation is well-established in the literature, little is known about factors that can buffer against detrimental consequences of self-objectification. The current work used a multi-method approach to investigate the role of self-compassion on men and women's perceptions of their bodies. Methods: Study 1 investigated relations between self-compassion, body surveillance, and body shame (N = 60 men, 104 women) using cross-sectional, self-report data. Study 2 (N = 64 men, 94 women) experimentally manipulated self-objectification and self-compassion, assessing resulting body surveillance and shame, whereas Study 3 (N = 69 men, 189 women) manipulated self-objectification among participants high and low in self-compassion. Results: In Study 1, self-compassion was inversely related to body shame and body surveillance, with selfcompassion moderating the link between surveillance and shame among men. In Study 2, self-compassion protected women in the high self-objectification condition from engaging in greater body surveillance. Yet, in Study 3, selfcompassion failed to buffer the consequences of body surveillance on body shame. An integrative analysis (N = 193 men, 387 women) demonstrated that self-compassion was strongly negatively associated with body shame and body surveillance among men and women, protecting against detrimental consequences of body surveillance among men. Conclusions: The current work contributes to a better understanding of links between constructs related to objectification theory and compassion for oneself in the light of gender differences.

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“…Further, a relatively less explored dimension of person perception is the attribution of humanness to other individuals. Existing literature has demonstrated that women who engage with beautification are perceived to be less human [ 44 ]. As such, we are likely to see decreased perceptions of humanness among plastic surgery recipients.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Under the knife: Unfavorable perceptions of women who seek plastic surgery

2021

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Plastic surgery is growing in popularity. Despite this, there has been little exploration to date regarding the psychosocial consequences of seeking plastic surgery. Our study investigated how women seeking plastic surgery are perceived by others. We presented a random sample of 985 adults (men = 54%, Mage = 35.84 years, SDage = 10.59) recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk with a series of experimental stimuli consisting of a photographed woman (attractive versus unattractive) and a vignette describing an activity she plans to engage in (plastic surgery versus control activity). Participants rated stimuli on perceived warmth, competence, morality, and humanness. We ran linear mixed-effect models to assess all study hypotheses. There was a negative plastic surgery effect; that is, women seeking plastic surgery were perceived less favorably than those planning to complete control activities across all outcome variables (warmth, competence, morality, and humanness). These relationships were moderated by physical attractiveness; while attractive women planning to undergo plastic surgery were perceived less favorably than attractive women planning to engage in control activities, perceptions of unattractive individuals remained unchanged by plastic surgery status. We theorized that empathy toward unattractive women seeking plastic surgery mitigated the negative plastic surgery effect for these women. In sum, our results suggest that perceptions of attractive women are worsened when these women decide to seek cosmetic surgery. Perceptions of warmth and competence have implications for an individual’s self-esteem and interpersonal relationships, while perceptions of morality and humanness can impact an individual’s ability to fulfil their psychological needs. As such, we concluded that attractive women seeking plastic surgery are potentially subject to experience negative psychosocial outcomes. Future research ought to examine whether perceptions and outcomes differ for women seeking reconstructive plastic surgery (versus cosmetic plastic surgery) and whether they differ across different types of surgeries (i.e. face versus body).

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An Initial Test of the Cosmetics Dehumanization Hypothesis: Heavy Makeup Diminishes Attributions of Humanness-Related Traits to Women

Cited by 22 publications

References 58 publications

Recognizing humanity: dehumanization predicts neural mirroring and empathic accuracy in face-to-face interactions

Recognizing humanity: dehumanization predicts neural mirroring and empathic accuracy in face-to-face interactions

How Self-Compassion Moderates the Relation Between Body Surveillance and Body Shame Among Men and Women

Under the knife: Unfavorable perceptions of women who seek plastic surgery

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