Abstract
Studies suggest that hair quality is an indicator of health and youth in females, and thus potentially related to attractiveness (Etcoff, 1999). Prior research has also shown that the use of mascara plays a key role in attractiveness (Peissig, et al., 2015). Therefore, we propose that eyelash fullness and length may be important for attractiveness judgments of females. To test for a relationship between eyelash length/fullness and attractiveness ratings, we had one group of participants assess just the eyes of a set of 48 faces, half shown with eyes open and half with the eyes closed; assignment of specific faces to open or closed was counterbalanced across participants. This group was given a Likert-like scale to rate the eyelash length and fullness, from 1 to 5, with 1 being short, thin eyelashes and 5 being long, thick eyelashes. Another group of individuals were shown the full face of an individual and rated it on attractiveness using a Likert-like scale from 1 to 7, with 1 being very unattractive and 7 being very attractive. This study showed a significant positive correlation between eyelash quality judgments and attractiveness ratings (r = 0.47, t(94) = 5.25, p < .001). We then collected a new set of faces from nine individuals, with photos of these individuals taken once a week over four weeks. We used the same procedure as the first experiment to test for a correlation between eyelash length/fullness and attractiveness, using multiple images of the same nine individuals, rather than single images from 48 individuals. Once again we found a positive correlation between eyelash length/fullness and attractiveness (r = 0.51, t(33) = 3.38, p < .01). These results suggest that eyelashes are an important feature for judging facial attractiveness in females, and may help us better understand female attractiveness and makeup use.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2018