What colour should I wear? How clothing colour affects women's judgement of other women's body attractiveness and body size

Sidhu, Nimreth; Qualter, Chloe; Higgs, Emily; Guo, Kun

doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103338

Cited by 9 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Initial reports that red enhanced attractiveness (e.g. Elliot & Niesta, 2008 ; Roberts et al, 2010 ) have been discredited ( Francis, 2013 ; Hesslinger et al, 2015 ; Peperkoorn et al, 2016 ; though see Sidhu et al, 2021 ). It may not be that one size or colour fits all.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clothing Aesthetics: Consistent Colour Choices to Match Fair and Tanned Skin Tones

Perrett

Sprengelmeyer

2021

i-Perception

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Fashion stylists advise clothing colours according to personal categories that depend on skin, hair and eye colour. These categories are not defined scientifically, and advised colours are inconsistent. Such caveats may explain the lack of formal tests of clothing colour aesthetics. We assessed whether observers preferred clothing colours that are linked to variation in melanin levels among White women. For this, we presented 12 women's faces: six with fair skin (relatively lower in melanin) and six with tanned skin (relatively higher in melanin). Across two experiments, observers ( N = 96 and 75) selected the colour (hue and saturation or hue and value) of simulated clothing that most suited the skin tone of each face. Observers showed strong preferences for red and blue hues, and in addition favoured ‘cool’ blue hues to match fair skin and ‘warm’ orange/red hues to match tanned skin. This finding suggests that skin tone can determine colour preferences for clothes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clothing Aesthetics: Consistent Colour Choices to Match Fair and Tanned Skin Tones

Perrett

Sprengelmeyer

2021

i-Perception

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“…Furthermore, although body attractiveness and body size judgements could be interdependent when manipulating bodily cues (e.g., slender bodies are often rated as more attractive with slimmer body size when manipulating dress style and colour; Cundall & Guo, 2017 ; Sidhu et al, 2021 ), in this study these two aspects of body perception were largely independent when manipulating facial cues. Different facial expressions and mask-on/mask-off on the same avatar could induce different body attractiveness ratings, but similar body size ratings (at least for avatars in sizes 8 and 16).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…High-resolution female body images of computer-generated young adult Caucasian avatars wearing a tight dress in full frontal view were created via www.trymetail.com ( Sidhu et al, 2021 ). These bodies represented three common UK dress sizes (sizes 8, 12, and 16; standardized 165 cm height and 74 cm inner leg measurements; AA to C breast cup sizes increasing proportionally in parallel to dress sizes).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent research has revealed that female body perception from women's perspective is modulated by both external and internal factors, such as body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), body fat, skin color, clothing style and color in the viewed body, and the viewers’ own culture, mental state, body composition and body satisfaction (e.g., Cornelissen et al, 2009 ; Cundall & Guo, 2017 ; Rodway et al, 2019 ; Sidhu et al, 2021 ). Typically, slender figures from the viewers’ own racial group dressed in black or red are often judged as more attractive with slimmer body size ratings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of Face Masks on Female Body Perception is Modulated by Facial Expressions

Mills

Guo

2021

Perception

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People routinely wear face masks during the pandemic, but little is known about their impact on body perception. In this online study, we presented female body images of Caucasian avatars in common dress sizes displaying happy, angry, and neutral facial expressions with and without face masks, and asked women to rate the perceived body attractiveness and body size. In comparison with mask-off condition, mask-on decreased body attractiveness ratings for happy avatars but did not affect ratings for neutral avatars irrespective of avatar dress sizes. For avatars displaying angry expressions, mask-on increased body attractiveness ratings for slimmer avatars but did not affect ratings for larger avatars. On the other hand, body size estimation was not systematically affected by face masks and facial expressions. It appears that face masks mainly show an expression-dependent influence on body attractiveness judgement, possibly through suppressing the perceived facial expressions.

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“…The suitability of this sample size was confirmed by power analysis using G * power software. With a conservative effect size of 0.3 often reported in previous studies on body attractiveness judgment and body-viewing gaze distribution (e.g., Cundall & Guo, 2017;Rodway et al, 2019;Sidhu et al, 2021), a sample of 21 and 28 participants in this study would have been large enough for the facial expression effect to be detected with a power of 0.95 at alpha level 0.05 and 1 nonsphericity correction in a 7 (facial expression) × 7 (body size) and 7 (facial expression) × 5 (body region) repeated measures design, respectively. All participants were either born in the UK or had spent considerable amount of time (> 1 year) studying in the UK, reported heterosexual orientation and no history of eating disorders, and had normal or corrected-to-normal visual acuity.…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facial expression modifies female body perception

et al. 2022

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The judgment of female body appearance has been reported to be affected by a range of internal (e.g., viewers’ sexual cognition) and external factors (e.g., viewed clothing type and colour). This eye-tracking study aimed to complement previous research by examining the effect of facial expression on female body perception and associated body-viewing gaze behaviour. We presented female body images of Caucasian avatars in a continuum of common dress sizes posing seven basic facial expressions (neutral, happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust), and asked both male and female participants to rate the perceived body attractiveness and body size. The analysis revealed an evident modulatory role of avatar facial expressions on body attractiveness and body size ratings, but not on the amount of viewing time directed at individual body features. Specifically, happy and angry avatars attracted the highest and lowest body attractiveness ratings, respectively, and fearful and surprised avatars tended to be rated slimmer. Interestingly, the impact of facial expression on female body assessment was not further influenced by viewers’ gender, suggesting a ‘universal’ role of common facial expressions in modifying the perception of female body appearance.

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What colour should I wear? How clothing colour affects women's judgement of other women's body attractiveness and body size

Cited by 9 publications

References 47 publications

Clothing Aesthetics: Consistent Colour Choices to Match Fair and Tanned Skin Tones

Clothing Aesthetics: Consistent Colour Choices to Match Fair and Tanned Skin Tones

Impact of Face Masks on Female Body Perception is Modulated by Facial Expressions

Facial expression modifies female body perception

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