Scientists from the National Research University School of Economics have discovered that, on average, people around the world spend one-sixth of their lives improving their appearance. The research was published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.
Sociologists from the National Research University’s School of Economics, along with colleagues from others, conducted the largest cross-cultural behavioral study on improving outlook in history. More than 93 thousand people from 93 countries participated.
The survey showed that both men and women spend an average of about four hours a day on behaviors designed to increase their physical attractiveness. These behaviors included wearing makeup, combing hair, choosing clothes, hygiene, exercising, or following a certain diet to improve appearance.
It has also been found that older people devote the same amount of time to their appearance as younger people. People at the beginning of a romantic relationship tend to spend more time improving their appearance than those who are married or have been dating for a longer period of time.
Not surprisingly, women in countries with strong gender inequality spend more time and effort improving their appearance than women in more gender-equal countries.
Social media use seems to be the most influential factor in the pursuit of beauty. Active social media users, especially those who are worried about their photos getting low likes, pay more attention to their appearance.
According to some scientists, our tendency to improve our appearance is due to the grooming behavior of primates. From an evolutionary perspective, this may be part of mating behavior, as appearance is associated with health status and the chance of having healthy offspring. It is believed that because of this hypothesis, women, especially young and unmarried women, are more interested in working on appearance. The results of the study almost completely disproved this hypothesis.
Another hypothesis suggests that people in countries where dangerous infections (leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, malaria, and leprosy) are common may spend more time taking care of themselves to avoid being mistaken for sick people. This hypothesis was only partially confirmed: people with a history of serious pathogenic disease spent a little more time improving their appearance to mask the symptoms of the disease.