GENDER EFFECT ON THE PERCEIVED COLOR OF COMPLEXIONS WITH DIFFERING EYE SHADOW

Abstract

This study determines whether perceptions of changes in facial complexions as a result of the use of colored eye shadow differ depending on the genders of the observers. Ten male and ten female students participated in this investigation. Five faces, each wearing different color eye shadow, and a face without eye shadow were presented together, and participants were asked to rank the six faces in order of ruddiness, yellowness, and the beauty of the makeup. We consequently found that the correlation between male and female participants concerning the beauty scores was not very high. Meanwhile, there were slight differences between the sexes in terms of the evaluations of face color, but these could be explained by the sexes' different judgment backgrounds. Our results suggest that the judgment of complexion might not be merely a perceptual task, and that analysis on this topic should be performed with the sexes separately.