Lipstick, the Recession and Evolutionary Psychology

Who would have ever though that lipstick sales could be a barometer of economic health or decline?  Sarah Hill, assistant professor of psychology at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth completed a series of experiments using real world data that says yes.

Her team's findings consistently supported the lipstick effect, as college-age women, when primed with news of economic instability, reported an increased desire to buy attractiveness-enhancing goods, along with a decreased desire to purchase goods that do not enhance one’s physical appearance. The experiments also found that this increased desire for beauty products, clothing and accessories was fully mediated by a heightened preference for mates with resources.

Full article here in Scientific American

• In 2008, when many companies reported record declines in sales amidst a global economic recession, L’Oréal, one of the world’s largest cosmetic manufacturers, was somehow immune to the downturn. In fact, L’Oréal enjoyed a sales growth of 5.3% that year—why? Why was L’Oréal the apparent beneficiary of a worldwide economic crisis?
• Furthermore, we discovered that the lipstick effect and a woman’s desire to attract a mate with resources are unrelated to her independent resource access. Women of both higher and lower socioeconomic status expressed an increased desire to buy luxury beauty products when primed with recession cues. This suggests that an uncertain economic climate leads women to heighten mate attraction effort irrespective of their own resource need.
• The national and global economies haven’t been doing well in a long time, and the forecast for recovery appears bleak. Very few industries have done well the past five years—but if there’s one industry that just might be recession-proof, perhaps it’s the one that manufactures our lipstick.