J. Cosmet. Sci., 62, 283–290 (May/June 2011) 283 Enhanced female attractiveness with use of cosmetics and male tipping behavior in restaurants NICOLAS GUÉGUEN and CELINE JACOB, Université de Bretagne- Sud, IUT de Vannes, Département TC, Laboratoire CRPCC-LESTIC, 8 rue Montaigne, BP 561 - 56017 Vannes, France. Accepted for publication December 2, 2010. Synopsis Several studies have found that cosmetics improve female facial attractiveness when judgments are made based on photographs. However, these studies were conducted only in the laboratory, while fi eld studies are scarce in the literature. In fact, only one study has tested the effect of cosmetics on behavior. In this study the effect of cosmetics on tipping behavior and the link between behavior and judgment on the physical attractiveness of waitresses wearing or not wearing cosmetics were tested. A female waitress with or without makeup was instructed to act in her usual way with her patrons. Results showed that the makeup condition was associated with a signifi cant increase in the tipping behavior of male customers. It was also found that the effect of makeup on tipping behavior was mediated by the perception of the physical attractiveness of the waitress, but only when considering male customers. INTRODUCTION The literature examining the role of cosmetics on social perception has found that, over- all, makeup is associated with a positive evaluation of a woman. Graham and Jouhar (1) reported positive effects of cosmetics on judgment. Male and female participants rated color photographs of four female targets of average physical attractiveness on several traits related to appearance and personality. With facial makeup, the targets were rated as being cleaner, more tidy, more feminine, and more physically attractive, as well as being more secure, sociable, interesting, poised, confi dent, organized, and popular. Richetin et al. (2) found that women with facial makeup (as opposed to a no-makeup condition), who were presented through color photography, were associated with positive traits and high-status professions. Cox and Glick (3) examined how average-looking women were perceived after a professional make-over as opposed to being cosmetics-free and found that cosmetics were positively associated with femininity and sexiness. Workman and Johnson (4) instructed female participants to view one of three colored photo- graphs of a professional model wearing either heavy, moderate, or no cosmetics. They found that cosmetics signifi cantly enhanced the impression of attractiveness and femininity. Address all correspondence to Nicolas Guéguen at nicolas.gueguen@univ-ubs.fr

JOURNAL OF COSMETIC SCIENCE 284 Cash et al. (5) conducted an experiment in which American college students were pho- tographed while wearing their typical facial cosmetics and again following the removal of their makeup. Participants rated the physical attractiveness of the women. Male judg- ments were found to be more favorable when the women were photographed with cos- metics than when they were cosmetics-free, whereas female judgments were not affected by the presence of makeup. In a recent study, Nash et al. (6) presented four women’s facial photographs either with or without cosmetics. Women with cosmetics were found to be perceived as healthier and more confi dent than when they were pre- sented without cosmetics. Participants also awarded women who were wearing makeup greater earning potential and more prestigious jobs than the same women without cosmetics. It seems that different levels of cosmetics use are associated with different perceptions. Mulhern et al. (7) asked male and female participants to view a set of fi ve photographs of women volunteers and to rank each set from the most to the least attractive. Volunteers were made up by a beautician in fi ve different ways: no makeup, foundation only, eye makeup only, lip makeup only, and full facial makeup (foundation, eyes, and lips). Fully made up faces were judged more attractive than the same faces makeup-free. They also found that eye makeup alone yielded higher levels of mean attractiveness ratings than foundation makeup alone, and the latter yielded higher levels of mean attractiveness rat- ings than only lip makeup. Altogether, these studies show that cosmetics enhance the perception of physical at- tractiveness and other feminine traits of women. The intent of the present study was to explore the effect of makeup on individual behavior, as contrasted with previous re- search in which impression formation of facial attractiveness was evaluated in a labora- tory with the help of photographs. In particular, tipping behavior was used to evaluate the impact of cosmetics on behavior. Previous research found that facial or hair adorn- ment was associated with a greater level of tipping behavior. Stillman and Hensley (8) found that diners left larger tips for waitresses who wore a fl ower in their hair than they left for the same waitresses without a fl ower. Tidd and Lockard (9) found that a waitress exhibiting a broad smile reaped larger tips than those exhibiting a minimal smile and more from men than from women patrons. These later studies show that patrons are affected by facial or head adornment of waitresses. Thus, in such a setting, facial makeup would probably infl uence a patron’s behavior and evaluations. Based on previous liter- ature, we hypothesized that a waitress’s makeup would increase tipping behavior, espe- cially with men patrons. It was secondly hypothesized that this effect would be mediated by the variation in the perception of her physical attractiveness. METHOD PARTICIPANTS One hundred and seventy-four restaurant customers (112 males and 62 females), who acted as participants, were randomly assigned to two groups. All of them were seated alone at a table in a restaurant of a medium-size city (more than 70,000 inhabitants) in a very attractive spot. The city selected was Vannes, located in the west of France on the Breton Atlantic Coast.