Abstract
Web users were exposed to images of bearded,
non-bearded,
and indeterminately bearded men. The web users
estimated the
temperature of each man, on a scale from 10 (HOT) to 1
(NOT).
These ratings were recorded and analyzed.
1. Introduction
Lichtblau et al. (1991) and Maloney et al
. (1999) concluded that, basically, cats are indifferent to photographs
of
bearded men. All other research on the topic has confirmed this
conclusion. There is, however, much more controversy on the reactions
of human beings to photographs of bearded men (Kaswell 1999).
For example, Muscarella and Cunningham (1996)
studied 204
college students and concluded that they perceived men with facial hair
as
"more agressive, less appeasing, less attractive, older, and lower on
social
maturity" than men with clean shaven faces. This is consistent with the
conclusions
of Wogalter and Hosie (1991): "Clean-shaven faces were regarded more
favorably
than bearded faces; they appeared younger, more attractive, and more
sociable."
On the other hand, Pancer and Meindl (1978)
concluded that
"the bearded male was regarded more positively than the clean-shaven
male."
And Pellegrini (1973) found that bearded men are perceived as
"masculine, mature, good-looking, dominant, self-confident, courageous,
liberal, nonconforming, industrious, and older."
Because of this controversy--and in an attempt to
obtain
one more publication before an impending tenure decision--we set out to
analyze
web user reactions to images of bearded men.
2. Materials
Three images were used in the study. The images,
reproduced
here, display the same man bearded (Figure 1), non-bearded (Figure 2),
and
indeterminately bearded (Figure 3):
The test subjects were approximately 540 male and female web users (180 web users viewed each image). As far as we know, no web users were harmed during the study.
3. Methods
Each web user was exposed to one of the three images
through
an Internet research service (www.HOTorNOT.com
). The image was visible to the web user for as long as he or she cared
to look at it. Each web user estimated the temperature of the man in
the image on a scale from 10 (HOT) to 1 (NOT), after which a new image
(unrelated to
this study) was presented to them.
4. Results
The results are shown in Figure 4:
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank the anonymous subject of
Figures
1 to 3. The subject declined to be paid for this work, but requested
that
his favorite book (Schulman 1999
) be mentioned here. Thanks also to Jim Young and James Hong for
providing
their inovative Internet research resource free to the academic
community.
References