Mate-value moderates the function of make-up as a signal of intrasexual aggression

The impact of sexual strategies, social comparison, and Instagram use on makeup purchasing intentions.

“…Women who are more competitive are more likely to use social media to determine their social standing (hence higher investment in platforms such as Instagram), will compare themselves more with others (hence higher social comparison scores), and will subsequently use cosmetics (hence stronger attitudes toward, and perception of oneself as attractive in, makeup) to make themselves more attractive to others. Importantly, women’s use of cosmetics is not just related to increasing attraction to the opposite sex but also to changing perceptions in a variety of contexts, an issue that has received increased attention (see Blake, 2021) and aligns with recent findings that cosmetics act as a signal of competitiveness in intrasexual contexts (Mafra et al, 2020; Sulikowski et al, 2022; Wagstaff, 2018). We do not argue that intrasexual competitiveness and its relationship with strategies such as cosmetics use should be considered only when considering mating-relevant scenarios, but rather that intrasexual competition affords a key viewpoint from which to consider women’s social media use and social comparison more broadly.…”

“…A multivariate mixed-effects ANOVA with experimental Instagram images group (four levels: idealized faces, budget makeup, luxury makeup, and travel) as a between-subjects factor and cosmetics value purchased (four levels: budget, lower midrange, upper midrange, and luxury) as the within-subjects factor was applied to the proportion of total expenditure participants allocated across the items purchased. Given Sulikowski and colleagues’ (2022) finding that only high-mate-value women were impacted by exposure to made-up attractive women’s faces, we included MVS scores (centered) as a covariate. Since total overall spend was defined as 1 for all participants (by expressing spend on each category as a proportion), the main effects of experimental group and mate value remained undefined in the model.…”

“…Interestingly, we did not observe that mate value moderated hypothetical cosmetics purchasing decisions, nor did it survive as an independent predictor of cosmetics purchases in our subsequent regression models. Sulikowski et al (2022) reported that makeup increased perceptions of aggressive intent when applied to highly attractive faces but increased perceptions of leadership potential when applied to less attractive faces. This points to the multiplicity of makeup’s social functions and suggests that simultaneous investigations of other social motives, alongside intrasexual competition, are called for.…”

“…Appearance-enhancing luxuries are a means of self-promotion by women in intrasexual contexts (Hudders et al, 2014), with attitudes to cosmetics, cosmetics use, and cosmetic surgery all related to intrasexual competition (Wagstaff, 2018; although see Batres et al, 2018). The utility of makeup as a means of signaling in competitive contexts is evident as Sulikowski et al (2022) showed that high-mate-value women are perceived as more aggressive when made up. As such, women, particularly high-mate-value women, who view idealistic beauty-related images on Instagram may seek to improve their own appearance through utilizing cosmetics products.…”

“…Hence, women who are more competitive are more likely to become emotionally invested in a platform in which they can evaluate other women’s appearances and create an idealized, and therefore more intimidating, image of themselves. Higher-mate-value women tend to be more intrasexually competitive, generally (Polo et al, 2019), and may also be more likely to both utilize and perceive makeup as a signal of intrasexual competitive intent (Sulikowski, 2022). These women are therefore more likely to be affected by the viewing of other women’s made-up faces and may be prone to spend money on cosmetics in order to appear competitive.…”