Beauty Premium or Penalty Revisited: Gender Differences in Social Perception of Female Cosmetic Surgery Recipients

Abstract

This thesis examines gender differences in how people evaluate female cosmetic surgery recipients. It was proposed that men perceive women whom they know have had cosmetic surgery more negatively compared to women who have not had cosmetic surgery because the beauty premium that men place on women stems from the reproductive value of innate beauty. In contrast, women’s perception of female cosmetic surgery recipients depends on whether cosmetic surgery is regarded as a legitimate self-improvement method or a dishonest way to get ahead in intrasexual competition. To test these hypotheses, a between-subjects lab experiment with 341 participants was conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk. As previous literature on cosmetic surgery focuses on people’s motivation for undergoing cosmetic surgery (Thorpe, Ahmed, & Steer, 2004), this thesis is one of the first attempts to investigate people's perceptions of female cosmetic surgery recipients. It helps prospective cosmetic surgery recipients understand the social consequence of cosmetic surgery and make more informed decisions.