ReviewArchives of sexual behavior2022
An Evolutionary Perspective on Appearance Enhancement Behavior.
Review in Archives of sexual behavior, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed.
- Clinical and Psychological Impacts of Social Media and Filtered Self-Images on Body Image Perception and Patient Satisfaction Following Aesthetic Procedures Among Jordanian Women: A Cross Sectional Study.Aesthetic plastic surgery · 2026Article
- Why Do Humans Exercise? A Neuro-Evolutionary Framework for Discretionary Physical Effort.Evolutionary anthropology · 2026Review
- Perceived Waist-to-Hip Ratio Predicts Attractiveness, Age, and Parity Judgments in Pre-Contemporary European Portraits of Clothed Women.Archives of sexual behavior · 2026Article
- A Cross-Cultural Examination of Intrasexual Competition: The Links Between Mating Competition, Aggression, Appearance Enhancement, and Sexuality.Archives of sexual behavior · 2026Article
- An evolutionary perspective on beautification: attractiveness, autonomy, and connectedness in men's romantic judgment across mating contexts.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Women's and men's perceptions of (not) wearing a bra in public.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- An "Eight Perspectives" framework to describe complex psychobehavioral phenomena.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Cosmetic enhancement as social signaling: context-dependent effects on facial evaluation in China and the United Kingdom.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Beauty Is Currency: Laywomen's Perceptions of the Social and Instrumental Functions of Physical Attractiveness.Archives of sexual behavior · 2026Article
- Face value: The effect of facial aesthetic treatment on first impressions and partner preferences.Perception · 2025Article
- Empowered yet dehumanized: perceptions of women's attractiveness in the context of gender earnings inequality.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Male Sex, Masculinization, Sexual Orientation, and Gynephilia Synergistically Predict Increased Sexual Jealousy.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- Homosexuality: A Mental Problem That Shouldn't Be Called Sexual Deviance.Iranian journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
- Erotic Capital: The Role of Attractiveness in Employment and Private Life.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- Makeup Usage in Women Is Positively Associated to Narcissism and Extraversion but Negatively to Psychopathy.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- Does physical exercise enhance physical appearance? An empirical study based on CFPS.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Motivations to Enhance One's Facial Hair: Affiliation, Rivalry, and Stress.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Behavioral and neural responses to social exclusion in women: the role of facial attractiveness and friendliness.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Validating the Revised Mating Effort Questionnaire.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- The Effect of Beautification Strategies on Mating Popularity Judged by Men from the People's Republic of China.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Researchers have highlighted numerous sociocultural factors that have been shown to underpin human appearance enhancement practices, including the influence of peers, family, the media, and sexual objectification. Fewer scholars have approached appearance enhancement from an evolutionary perspective or considered how sociocultural factors interact with evolved psychology to produce appearance enhancement behavior. Following others, we argue that evidence from the field of evolutionary psychology can complement existing sociocultural models by yielding unique insight into the historical and cross-cultural ubiquity of competition over aspects of physical appearance to embody what is desired by potential mates. An evolutionary lens can help to make sense of reliable sex and individual differences that impact appearance enhancement, as well as the context-dependent nature of putative adaptations that function to increase physical attractiveness. In the current review, appearance enhancement is described as a self-promotion strategy used to enhance reproductive success by rendering oneself more attractive than rivals to mates, thereby increasing one's mate value. The varied ways in which humans enhance their appearance are described, as well as the divergent tactics used by women and men to augment their appearance, which correspond to the preferences of opposite-sex mates in a heterosexual context. Evolutionarily relevant individual differences and contextual factors that vary predictably with appearance enhancement behavior are also discussed. The complementarity of sociocultural and evolutionary perspectives is emphasized and recommended avenues for future interdisciplinary research are provided for scholars interested in studying appearance enhancement behavior.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.