A new study has revealed that young women have less respect for other women who post sexy pictures of themselves online.
The research, carried out by Elizabeth Daniels, an assistant professor of psychology at Oregon State University at the time of the study, says women prefer more conservatively-dressed females as friends and also believe those who dress provocatively are less capable of carrying out tasks.
For the study, two profiles with identical information were created based on a fictional 20-year-old girl called Amanda. She likes The Notebook, Twilight and Lady Gaga. In one profile, Amanda is dressed sexy – red dress, garter etc, in the other she’s dressed down in jeans and a shirt, with a scarf covering her chest.
58 girls aged 13-18 and 60 young adult women aged 17-25 were shown one or the other and their perceptions of the profiles clearly showed a vast difference between how they viewed the girl with the non-sexy profile image.
Basically, when it came to physical attractiveness, social attractiveness and task competence, this profile scored higher, which notes the potential detrimental effect this kind of photo can have on a young woman’s life. Ultimately, this study says the perception people have of you in your social media images can negatively serve you in real life.
‘There is so much pressure on teen girls and young women to portray themselves as sexy, but sharing those sexy photos online may have more negative consequences than positive,’ Daniels said. ‘Why is it we focus so heavily on girls’ appearances? What does this tell us about gender? Those conversations should be part of everyday life.’
For her part, Daniels believes that it’s more favourable to women to upload less-sexy shots, and to focus less on personal appearance and more on things like hobbies, travel and sports. ‘Focus on who you are as a person and what you do in the world,’ is her advice.
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.