“Female Intrasexual Competition: Self-Promotion, Social Media, Sabotage and Spending”, 2023-07 ():
People seek partners, pair up, reproduce, and rear offspring. The selection of the optimal mate is integral to maximizing the benefits of partnership, hence people exhibit sophisticated physical and psychological mechanisms signaling adaptations to these challenges. Opposite-sex attraction and intrasexual competition are the two broad processes interacting to maximize reproductive success. In this thesis I explore ways in which women compete with other women to secure and retain high quality partners and the resources such partners contribute.
In the first study I explored the combined effects of makeup and ovulation on ratings of female faces on characteristics related to intrasexual competition (like physical attractiveness, flirtatiousness) and characteristics not expected to be related to intrasexual competition (like trustworthiness and conscientiousness). Women were found to rate faces as more physically attractive than men. Women rated faces with makeup as more attractive than bare faces, and this was especially true for women with low intrasexual competitiveness. Intrasexual competitiveness negatively predicted attractiveness ratings of made-up faces for women, but positively predicted attractiveness ratings of made-up faces for men. Contrary to predictions, women and men both rated non-fertile bare-faces as more physically attractive than fertile faces but differences decreased with makeup, suggesting that makeup obscured the effect of ovulation. Ratings on non-competitive characteristics like Conscientiousness and trustworthiness, were not affected by intrasexual competitiveness.
In the second study I explored the use of social media as a vector for female intrasexual competition. Firstly, using a mock-up Instagram feed I investigated the effect of mate value and intrasexual competitiveness on participants’ likelihood of posting, “liking” or commenting on different types of photos, and secondly by analysing the actual photos posted by a subset of consenting participants. More competitive women were less likely to “like” another woman’s photo of herself, but more likely to post a solo-appearance photo of their own. In the second study, high mate value-high intrasexual competitiveness caused a decrease in number of photos posted. But for low and medium mate value women, photos posted increased with increased intrasexual competitiveness, suggesting that those women who have the most to gain by manipulating/curating their online image are the ones who post more photos on Instagram. Overall, in both studies, men were more likely to post photos of luxury products than women, while women were more likely to post solo-appearance photos.
In the third study I explored how women sabotage hypothetical hairdressing clients through disingenuous beauty advice which would detrimentally impact the clients’ physical attractiveness. Both lay women and female professional hairdressers cut most hair off women who were of the same-attractiveness level as them. They sabotaged women whose hair was in good condition and had requested a smaller amount cut off to a greater extent than women with hair in poor condition. Client makeup caused lower mate value lay women to cut off less hair, suggesting the dominance incited by women wearing makeup resulted in reduced sabotage. More intrasexually competitive women (including hairdressers) cut off more hair confirming competitor manipulation as an intrasexual competitiveness strategy being employed.
The final study explored conspicuous consumption as a female competitive strategy using women’s spending on non-essential items in two different scenarios—in preparation for a women-only social event to be hosted in their home, and at a charity function. In the first scenario high intrasexual competitiveness resulted in an increase in spending on all 3 items—the kitchen, the outfit and makeup. Women 35–45 years of age spent more if they had children, but the sexes of the children did not make a difference. In the second study, giving to a charity increased with intrasexual competitiveness, perception of judgement by the women around them and whether there was an audience. Women were compelled to buy more tickets when the women around them spent more. We explain these findings in terms of manipulative consumption in which wealthier women seek to deplete the resources of rivals.
Across this thesis I compare ways in which women compete with rivals and highlight how competitor manipulation (in various forms), though less-explored, is likely to be as important as self-promotion and derogation as an effective female intrasexual competitive strategy.
Chapter 1: General Introduction
1.1 Thesis Aims and Chapter Overview
1.2 The need for competition and the attributes contributing to competitiveness
1.2.1 Physical Attractiveness Preferences
1.2.1.1 Components of facial attractiveness
1.2.1.2 Components of body attractiveness
1.2.2 Non-physical preferences
1.2.2 Shifts in mate selection preferences
1.2.3 Mate Value
1.2.3.1 Mate Value measures
1.2.4 Compromise in mate selection
1.2.5 Intrasexual Competition
1.3 Research Aims
References
Chapter 2: Sex Differences in the Perception of Attractiveness as Affected by Makeup and Ovulation
Background
1.1.1 Make-up
1.1.2 Cyclical changes in fertility
1.2 The Current Study
Materials and method
2.1. Participants
2.2. Instruments and Measures
2.2.1. Mate Value Scale
2.2.2. Mate Value Inventory (short form)
2.2.2. Intrasexual competitiveness scale
2.3 Stimuli
2.4 Procedure
Results
3.1 Ratings of Physical Attractiveness
3.1.1 Physical Attractiveness and Intrasexual Competitiveness
3.1.2 Physical Attractiveness and Mate Value
3.2 Impact of makeup, ovulation and intrasexual competition on other characteristics
3.2.1 Ratings of overall attractiveness
3.2.2 Ratings of flirtatiousness and desirability to date
3.2.3 Ratings of trustworthiness and friendliness
3.2.4 Ratings of Conscientiousness and Parenting Ability
3.3 Exploring the differences between intrasexual competitiveness and mate value on judgements of characteristics
3.4 Summary of results
Discussion
Effects of makeup on intrasexually competitively relevant ratings
Effects of ovulation on intrasexually competitively relevant ratings
Ratings of characteristics not expected to be associated with intrasexual competition
Comparisons between MVS and MVI
Strengths and limitations
Conclusion
References
Chapter 3: Instagratification—The use of social media as an intrasexual competitive strategy in women
Background
1.1. Social Networking Sites and Wellbeing
1.2 Female-female Interactions on Social Media
1.3 Instagram
Part 1
2.1 The current study
2.2 Materials and method
2.2.1 Participants
2.2.2 Instruments and Measures
2.2.2.1 Mate Value Scale
2.2.2.2 Mate Value Inventory (short form)
2.2.2.3 Scale for Intrasexual Competition
2.2.2.4 The HEXACO-60 Personality Inventory
2.2.3 Stimuli
2.2.4 Procedure
2.3 Results
2.3.1 Calculating Photo Category Scores
2.3.2 Comparison of the effect of intrasexual competitiveness on participant likeliness to post, comment or like photos highlighting their appearance
2.3.3 Comparison of the effect of mate value on participant likeliness to post, comment or like photos highlighting their appearance
2.3.4 Comparison of male and female participants’ likeliness to post photos from the different categories
2.4 Discussion
Part 2 Analysis of participants’ Instagram content
3.1 The current study
3.2 Method
3.2.1 Participants
3.2.2 Procedure
3.3 Results
3.3.1 Comparison of Parts 1 and 2 data sets
3.3.2 Effect of sex, intrasexual competitiveness and mate value on the number of photos posted to Instagram
3.3.3 Comparison of differences in the types and quantities of photos posted by men and women on Instagram in a 3-month period
3.4 Discussion
Summary of results
Mate value, intrasexual competitiveness and posting behavior
3.5 General Considerations
References
Chapter 4: Sabotage at the Salon—Do hairdressers respond differently to attractive customers?
1.1 Background
Hair as a Female Sexual Signal
Competitor Manipulation
Makeup as a self-promotion strategy
Sabotage and intrasexual competitiveness
1.2 The Current Study
Study 1
Materials and method
2.1. Participants
2.2. Instruments and Measures
2.2.1. Mate Value Scale
2.2.2. Scale for Intrasexual Competition
2.3 Stimuli
2.4 Design
2.5 Procedure
2.6 Data Analysis
Results
3.1 Correlations
3.2 Effect of client attractiveness on male and female participant responses
3.2.1 Effects within the female only dataset
3.2.2 Effects in the male dataset
3.3 Effect of relative attractiveness on female participant responses
3.4 Summary of results
Discussion
Study 2
Materials and method
5.1 Participants
5.2 Instruments and Measures
5.3 Stimuli
5.4 Procedure
5.5 Data Analysis
Results
6.1 Correlations
6.2 Effect of client attractiveness on hairdresser responses
6.3 Summary of results
Discussion
General Discussion
Effects for women
Effect of attractiveness of client
Effect of makeup
Effects of relative attractiveness
Effects for men
Effect of makeup
Conclusion
Chapter 5: To Buy or not to Buy—Conspicuous Consumption as a Female Intrasexual Competitiveness Strategy
1.1 Background
1.1 Sex differences in conspicuous consumption
1.2 Intrasexual competition and mothering
Study 1
Materials and method
2.1. Participants
2.2. Instruments and Measures
2.2.1. Mate Value Scale
2.2.2. Scale for Intrasexual Competition (SIC)
2.2.3 Likeliness to spend on a kitchen, outfit and makeup
2.3 Stimuli
Vignette 1
2.4 Procedure
Results
3.1 Effect of age, mate value, intrasexual competitiveness and children on spending
3.2 Spending on a kitchen by the 3 different age groups
3.3 Spending on clothing by the 3 different age groups
3.4 Spending on makeup by the 3 different age groups
3.5 Effects of sex of children on likeliness to spend
3.6 Summary of main results from Part 1
Discussion
Effects of intrasexual competition and mate value
Spending on a kitchen
Spending on clothes and makeup
Differences in mate value with life stage
Effects of the sexes of their children
Study 2
Method
5.1 Stimuli
5.2 Procedure
Results
6.1 Correlations
6.2 Effect of vignette on number of tickets purchased
6.3 Effect of perception of judgement on number of tickets purchased
6.4 Summary of main findings in Part 2
Discussion
References
Chapter 6: General Discussion
6.1 Key Findings
Makeup, Ovulation and Intrasexual Competitiveness
Instagram and intrasexual competition
Sabotage at the Salon?
Conspicuous Consumption
2 General remarks
6.3 Strengths and limitations
6.5 Future Research Directions
6.6 Final Comments
References
Presentation of results pertaining to this thesis
Published Journal Articles and Articles in Preparation for Publication
Conference Presentation
Appendix A—Common Scales
A1. Mate Value Inventory (MVI-11 Short form) (Kirsner et al 200321ya):
A2. Mate Value Scale (2014):
A3. Scale for Intrasexual Competition (2009)
Version for women
Version for men
A4. HEXACO-60 (Self-report form) (2009)
Appendix B Vignettes for Chapter 5 Study 2
Vignette 2.1: Women only, low amount, with an audience
Vignette 2.2 Women only, low amount, without an audience
Vignette 2.3 Women only, high amount, with an audience
Vignette 2.4 Women only, high amount, without an audience
Vignette 2.5 Women only, variable amount—Carol, with an audience
Vignette 2.6 Women only, variable amount—Carol, without an audience
Vignette 2.7 Women only, variable amount—Beth, with audience
Vignette 2.8 Women only, variable amount—Beth, with without an audience
Vignette 2.9 With partners, low amount, with audience
Vignette 2.10 With partners, low amount, without an audience
Vignette 2.11 With partners, high amount, with audience
Vignette 2.12 With partners, high amount, without an audience
Vignette 2.13 With partners, variable amount—Carol, with audience
Vignette 2.14 With partners, variable amount—Carol, without audience
Vignette 2.15 With partners, variable amount—Beth, with audience
Vignette 2.16 With partners, variable amount—Beth, without audience
Appendix C1
Appendix C2