The Mane Event: The Influence of Hair Length and View on Perceptions of Female AttractivenessKelley Knapp-Kline Ph.D, Yahira R. Lugo-Lugo, Kory Hennion, Ursula Y. Backus, Sabrina L. Washington,

Jamie-Ann U. Tedtaotao, Cesley Santos, & Stephanie HoltFlorida State University Panama City

Rationale for Study

Conclusions

A woman’s facial (symmetry) and bodily features (small waist-hip ratio) are among the most salient cues to her level of health and fertility and, therefore, are closely linked to others’ perceptions of her attractiveness (Langlois & Roggman, 1990). As these features have been linked with youth, health, and parasite resistance (Thornhill and Gangestad, 1993), they may signal a woman’s youth and health.

Hair, a physical characteristic that may be linked to youth and health, has received little attention. Hair tends to be thicker, healthier, and grows more rapidly in younger women of reproductive age than in older women (Hinsz, Matz, & Patience, 2001), suggesting that hair length and health may signal a woman’s age and fecundity. Because males find characteristics associated with fertility to be attractive, it may be assumed that males would find females with longer hair to be more attractive than females with shorter hair. Mesko and Bereczkei (2004) reported evidence to support this hypothesis, when male participants were presented with images of women adorned with various hairstyles and required to provide attractiveness ratings. These investigators found that women depicted with medium length and long hair were rated as significantly more attractive than the same women with shorter hair. It was also reported that females were rated as significantly healthier when depicted with longer hair than with shorter hair, suggesting long hair was associated with greater attractiveness judgments as well as perceptions of health in their study. Unfortunately, because these investigators only examined male responses, the influence of hair length on females’ perceptions (i.e., intrasexual competition) of women’s attractiveness was not observed. Furthermore, it is unclear whether hair length uniquely influences perceptions of female attractiveness as there may have been interaction effects of facial cues with hair cues in this study.

The current study examined whether hair length provides a unique signal to a woman’s attractiveness that is independent of facial cues. This hypothesis was tested by requiring participants to rate the attractiveness of a woman adorned with different hair lengths (short, long) while facial features were either present (a frontal view) or absent (posterior view). If hair length provides a unique cue to a woman’s attractiveness that is completely independent of facial cues, then ratings should be significantly higher for the woman with longer hair than the same woman depicted with shorter hair regardless of the view. It was also hypothesized that female participants, would produce the same pattern of attractiveness ratings of males, because women compete with one another on the basis of physical attractiveness and tend to be aware of feminine features that men find attractive (Kenrick et al., 1994).

Questions of Experiment Questions of Experiment

 1. Do participants provide higher attractiveness ratings for a woman with long hair than the same woman with short hair regardless of the presence of absence of facial cues?

 

2. Are there gender differences in attractiveness ratings for the two hair lengths?

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

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Results Results

ParticipantsParticipants

MethodsMethods

PhotosPhotos

 

Two hundred eighty participants (121 males, 159 females) with a mean age of 26.55 (SD=10.37) years completed this study. Participants were volunteers recruited from classes at Florida State University Panama City, Gulf Coast Community College, Valencia Community College, and the University of Central Florida.

In a between-subjects design, each participant completed a three-page questionnaire packet given by the experimenter. On the first page of the packet, each participant viewed a photo of a woman of a given hair length (short, long) in a particular view (frontal, posterior). Two hair lengths and two views were presented so that the same woman’s face was presented in four photos (short hair in frontal view, short hair in posterior view, long hair in frontal view, long hair in posterior view). Two models, who were in their early twenties, were used as target photos in this study. Length of hair was operationally defined as short if it was less than 15 cm and above the chin and long if it was greater than 43.18 cm and fell below the woman’s shoulders. Participants were required to provide an attractiveness rating for each woman on a scale from one to five (one indicating least attractive; five indicating most attractive) that was listed underneath the photo. Following this, participants complete a series of demographic questions.   

Long

ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for hair length, F(1,181)=43.15, p<.01, which showed that participants rated a woman with long hair as more attractive than the same woman with short hair.

1. Participants rated a woman with long hair as significantly more attractive than the same woman with short hair.

 

2. Participants rated a women presented in a frontal view when facial cues are present as significantly more attractive than the same woman shown in a posterior view when facial features are unavailable.

 

3. No gender differences were observed.

4. The findings are consistent with an evolutionary perspective.

References References Hinsz, V.B., Matz, D.C., & Patience, R.A. (2001). Does women’s hair signal

reproductive potential? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37,

166-172

Kenrick, D.T., Neuberg, S.L., Zierk, K.L., & Krones, J.M., (1994). Evolution and social cognition:

Contrast effects as a function of sex, dominance, and physical attractiveness.

Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin. 20(2), 210-217

Langlois, J.H., & Roggman, L.A. (1990). Attractive faces are only average.

Psychological Science, 1 (2), 115-121.

Mesko, N., & Bereczkei, T. (2004). Hairstyle as an adaptive means of displaying phenotypic quality.

Human Nature, 15 (3), 251-270.

Thornhill, R., & Gangestad, S.W. (1993). Human facial beauty: Averageness, symmetry, and parasite

resistance. Human Nature, 4, 237-269.

Frontal View Posterior View

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Model A

Model B

A 2 X 2 X 2 X 2 (model-by-hair length-by-head view-by-gender) ANOVA revealed the results described below.

Main Effects:

Hair Length and Head View:

A significant main effect for hair length was found, F (1,181)=43.15, p<.01, which indicated that participants rated a woman with long hair as significantly more attractive than the same woman depicted with short hair (see Figure 1). A significant main effect was also observed for head view, F (1,181)=29.65, p<.01, which showed that participants provided higher attractiveness ratings for the frontal view when facial cues are visible than the posterior view when facial cues are absent (see Figure 2).

Gender and Model:

The main effect for model was not significant, F (1, 181)= .45, p>.05, which showed that the two models were comparable in attractiveness. A non-significant main effect for gender was also observed, F (1,181)=.67, p>.05, which indicated that there were no differences in attractiveness ratings for males and females.

Interaction Effects:

A non-significant 2 X 2 (hair length-by-head view) interaction was found, F (1,181)=3.11; p<.08, which indicated that there were no differences in hair length attractiveness ratings for the two views, suggesting each of these variables uniquely contributes to the variance in attractiveness ratings (See Figure 3). The interactions of gender-by-hair length, gender-by-head view, and gender-by-hair length-by-head view were all found to be non-significant.

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ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for head view, F (1,181)=29.65, p<.01, which indicated that participants rated the frontal view as more attractive than the posterior view.

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ANOVA revealed a non-significant hair length-by-head view interaction, F (1,181)=3.11; p<.08, indicating there were no differences in attractiveness ratings for hair length based on the view of the face. Thus, ratings are higher for the models depicted with long hair regardless of whether facial cues are available.