Is Beauty a Joy Forever? Young Women's Emotional Responses to Varying Types of Beautiful Advertising Models

Sep 5, 2026

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The study investigates college women’s emotional responses to Solomon, Ashmore, and Longo’s six beauty types, then tests reactions to model combinations derived from two emerging independent dimensions: Sexual/Sensual (SS) and Classic Beauty/Cute/Girl-Next-Door (CCG). Survey results do not support the original six types; higher CCG degrees produce significantly greater pleasure, arousal, and dominance in tested advertising models. The work also frames these reactions through social comparison and social cognitive processes, linking media beauty ideals to emotion and evaluation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryGeneral

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Pages23

Reading Time8 min

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Is BEAUTY A Jor FOREVER?

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# Is BEAUTY A Jor FOREVER?YoUNG WoMEN's EMOTIONALRESPONSES TO VARYING TYPESOF BEAUTIFUL ADVERTISING MODELS By J.Robyn Goodman,Jon D.Morris,and John C.Sutherland Numerous studies have explored the relationship betveen female beautyand positive effects for the woman,product,or ad;however,none hasexplored women's emotional responses to different beauty types.Thisstudy investigated college women's emotional responses to Solomon,Ashmore,and Longo's six beauty types.The survey results revealedthat the original six beauty types were not supported.Instead,theycombined into two independent dimensions:Sexual/Sensual(SS)andClassic Beauty/Cute/Girl-Next-Door(CCG).After testing emotionalreactions to High CCG/Low SS,High SS/Low CCG,and Equal CCG/SSmodels,models with higher degrees of CCG produced significantlygreater pleasure,arousal,and dominance. Advertisers use beautiful women to attract attention to productsbecause they believe the beautiful are credible,desirable,and aspira-tional.Numerous studies have shown that beautiful people receivemore positive responses.²They are seen more positively upon initialintroduction,³have greater social influence,⁴are better liked,⁵and areattributed with more positive characteristics such as kindness,strength,friendliness,and independence.6 Moreover,abundant evidence suggestsbeautiful people in ads produce positive effects for the ad and product.? Yethow do advertisers define “beauty?”Research shows that soci-ety and media's current characteristics of beauty include thin body,bigeyes,full lips,flawless skin,and high cheekbones.8All these attributesare hallmarks of youth,and all except for thinness are considered cross-cultural qualities of beauty.9 Even so,advertising models'looks differ.They vary in their phys-ical attributes and personified qualities such as elegance or sexiness.10Thus,researchers have explored different beauty types and how thesetypes are best paired with a particular brand,known as the BeautyMatch-up Hypothesis. However,these studies have not exploredwomen's emotional responses to different beauty types in advertising.Given that"beauty...is transitory,indefinable,best understood in terms of emotion,and is ultimately subjective,"12 the present study seeks tomeasure women's emotional responses to these beauty types to betterunderstand women's feelings. ## Theoretical Social comparison¹³and social cognitive theory¹⁴provide theoreticalFrameworks frameworks to explain the key processes and assumptions in emotionalreactions to beauty type.That is,women compare and judge themselvesby advertising models,which influences their feelings,and socializationlikely influences women's emotional responses.According to social cog-nitive theory,most social behaviors are learned by watching others'behaviors and behavioral consequences,which direct future behavior.5Because the media are major socializing agents,they emphasize beauty asthe route to social acceptability,and they positively reward the beautiful,6women will likely buy products to achieve that look. According to social comparison theory,humans are driven to eval-uate their attitudes,opinions,and abilities by comparing themselves toothers.However,this drive for comparison has three separate motives—self-evaluation,self-enhancement,and self-improvement—and eachdetermines the comparison's effect.Self-evaluation,which is an accurateassessment of one's abilities,value,or worth,⁷is based on the direction ofthe comparisons.For most women,comparison with a model's physicalappearance produces an upward comparison—comparison with some-one higher on an attribute—and negative effect.18 Self-enhancementinvolves comparing oneself to someone who will protect,maintain,orenhance self-perception,19 while self-improvement involves learning howto better oneself or finding inspiration from another to improve an aspectof oneself.20 Thus,it is likely that women will be more attracted to (i.e.,be more aroused by)models who increase their self-enhan

FAQs

What does the study investigate about beauty types in advertising?

The study examines college women’s emotional responses to different beauty types used in advertising models, moving beyond prior work focused mainly on positive effects of beauty.

How are the original beauty types reinterpreted in the survey results?

The original six beauty types are not supported as distinct categories; instead, they combine into two independent dimensions: Sexual/Sensual (SS) and Classic Beauty/Cute/Girl-Next-Door (CCG).

Which model dimension combination leads to stronger emotional reactions?

Models with higher degrees of CCG produce significantly greater pleasure, arousal, and dominance compared with conditions involving lower CCG.

Sep 5, 2026

Upload by Stanley