This seems to be consistent with my theory of hair as a frame. As facial features deteriorate with age (30), the absence-of-frame effect favors blondes at the expense of brunettes. At the even higher age (40) attractiveness overall declines and the absence-of-frame trick is no longer effective.
Percept Mot Skills. 2008 Jun;106(3):737-44.
Attractiveness of blonde women in evolutionary perspective: studies with two Polish samples.
Sorokowski P.
Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, ul. J. Dawida 1, 50-527 Wrocław, Poland. sorokowskipiotr@yahoo.co.uk
An experimental study was undertaken to assess the phenomenon of male preference for blondes. In the first study, 360 Polish men ages 18 to 46 years were asked to assess the attractiveness of the presented stimuli using a 9-point scale. Stimuli were 9 different pictures of the same women whose ages (about 20, 30, and 40 years old) and hair colors (blonde, brown, and brunette) were manipulated. Pictures of blonde-haired women were generally rated as younger than the others. The attractiveness ratings of female faces changed with age and hair color. Still, only the 30-yr.-old woman with blonde hair was rated as significantly more attractive than those with brown or brunette hair. In a second study (the analysis of 500 Internet advertisements) mature women dyed their hair blonde more frequently. These results are analyzed with regard to the evolutionarily formed male preference for younger females.
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9 comments:
What the heck is the difference between brown and brunette???
Dienekes: Your "theory" remains as retarded as ever.
Mike: apparently "brunette" is dark brown and "brown" is intermediate in this context.
The study sounds weak (how were age and hair color "manipulated"? Photoshop?), but the main outcome is not surprising: "blonde-haired women were generally rated as younger". Twenty-year-old women are already in the ideal age range and don't benefit from looking younger. Thirty-year-old women do. For forty-year-old women, any slight reduction in apparent age is a drop in the bucket.
Dienekes (at least used to have) has a theory that blonde hair makes Nordic women attractive, whereas if they didn't have it they would be very unattractive. This goes to his theory that Med women are naturally hotter and it is based on facial structure. So if I got this right, blonde hair makes up facial ugliness.
Do you still hold that idea Dienekes?
I guess brown hair is not coal black hair-which is pretty too.
I know men like blondes,because they're girly,and alluring ,but I think all the hair colors are pretty-esp. if a woman keeps herself pretty and has a pretty personality-but I'm a female myself so I wouldn't know how a guy thinks.
I think "n/a" is right. The hair color of the vast majority of blondes darkens with age, and thus a blonde 30-year old would appear younger. Blonde hair in this context is just a signal for youth. There's no need to come up with some other complicated explaination when the simple one seems to work.
>> There's no need to come up with some other complicated explaination when the simple one seems to work.
If blond hair made women more attractive because it made them more youthful, then we would expect the pattern to hold for 40-yo's too.
Of course 40-yo's would be rated lower than 30-yo's, but within the former, the blonder and thus more youthful ones, would be rated higher. It makes a lot of difference if a women is seen as a hot 30+ vs. an early menopausal 40+. Sure, neither one would be rated a 10 as a 20-year-old can, but there would be a difference between them.
On the other hand, the absence-of-frame theory explains this quite nicely: framing just isn't potent enough to hide the aging face: no matter what frame you put around a Michelangelo (=20yo) it will still look good. No matter what frame you put around a bad painting (=40yo), it will still look bad. It is the average types (=30yo) that stand to benefit.
I dont see how blond(dyed job or not) hair makes one younger. Usually its done to hide white hair. Aside from that, dont see how it causes anything else.
The phenomenon of male preference for blondes, is rather recent & modern and has flip side.. its also that they are considered dumb and/or bimbos.
I think my ethnicity and my Mom are good looking-I wonder if we have any blonde Pole blood?
your opinion isn't borne out by the web community. A few clicks through root or shoot will show that pretty quickly.
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