Bilbao, Spain. Collecting hard data on the attitudes of women who buy cosmetic products, and placing them in the context of evolutionary biology, researchers found that the product purchases were primarily for more immediate emotional reasons.

Researchers from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) say both the emotional and utility aspect of cosmetic brands have a significant impact on consumer satisfaction, but the emotional component has a greater effect.


The cosmetics were facial creams (hydrating and nutritive ones, coloured or non-coloured, and anti-wrinkle creams) and body creams (firming and anti-cellulite creams). Vanessa Apaolaza, a researcher from the UPV, and lead author, notes that some of the main positive emotions aroused by beauty products include "the sensation of wellbeing gained from eliminating or reducing feelings of worry and guilt, which is the factor with the greatest impact". The overall findings appear in the African Journal of Business Management (AJBM).

Evolutionary Context: An Emotional Need to Attract the Opposite Sex

One of Darwin's fundamental points in The Descent of Man (1871;1875) is that males and females are inexorably linked in their evolution.

Darwin argued that sexual differences must be viewed as responses to selection pressures that we may not yet understand.

The researchers note something that could explain the importance assigned to the unconscious emotional desire "to be attractive to the opposite sex, to be sexually attractive", and which encourages women to buy cosmetics.

One of the most basic impulses of the human being can be found in the Darwinist analysis of attraction.

It posits that beautiful faces and well-formed bodies are important biological indicators of a person's value as a sexual partner.

With passing time and the maturation of evolutionary biology, thephysical sciences have offered up much that can be learned about the behavioral consequences of sexual differentiation.The scientists carried out personal surveys on 355 women aged between 18 and 50, who were selected in a random sample. The women were asked to evaluate various aspects of their perceptions of the functional and emotional factors of the cosmetics they used, as well as their degree of satisfaction with them.

Study Results

The data shows that "consumer satisfaction is greatest when the cosmetics brand helps to strengthen positive emotions through the perception of caring for oneself and removing feelings of worry and guilt about not taking care of one's appearance", says Apaolaza.

Paradoxically, in order for the brand to provide this positive emotional experience, it must first cause consumers to have negative feelings about themselves, such as concern about and dissatisfaction with their appearance. One way of achieving this is by subtly telling the women they are ugly — something that many cosmetics advertisments achieve implicitly and very effectively by showing images of unusually beautiful women.

The theory of social comparison has been used in various research studies to explain how using very attractive models in advertising can affect consumers. The basic premise of these studies, says Apaolaza, "... is that consumers compare their own level of physical attractiveness with that of the models used in adverts, and that these comparisons give rise to negative effects in the way they perceive their own physical attractiveness and on their self-esteem. These effects are most heightened among people with the greatest awareness of their public image", she adds.

The authors argue for the need to eliminate these negative emotions and to soothe women's worries about looking good as one of their main psychological motivations for buying cosmetics. However, that would still leave important evolutionary considerations in place.

Emotions and Utility

"Our emotions often dictate our decisions. In our buying behaviour, we make emotional decisions and justify them rationally. These emotions are in part learned and in part instinctive", points out Apaolaza.

Of the emotional brand-related components studied, "the positive feeling gained from experiencing greater success in social interactions" has the greatest impact on pleasure, the author says. [cf. Sidebar]

From a utility perspective, the researchers found that the design of the bottles or containers (attractive, making the product or brand seem technically superior, exceptional and unique) also has an impact on purchasing decisions.

"These results serve as a recommendation to the market to use persuasive strategies focused more on emotional aspects than functional ones", the researcher concludes.

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