Brief report: women's hair color and donations: blonds receive more money.

Abstract:
Previous research on the effect of hair color on helping revealed discrepant results. Female
confederates wearing blond, brown or dark colored wigs solicited 2400 male and female
pedestrians for a donation in the context of a fundraising drive for the French Telethon. It was
found that male, but not female, passersby helped the confederates wearing blond wigs more
frequently and gave them more money. Greater youth and healthiness associated with blond
hair in women is used to explain these results.
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Article Type:
Report
Subject:
Women (Health aspects)
Hair dyes (Research)
Muscular dystrophy (Care and treatment)
Muscular dystrophy (Research)
Author:
Gueguen, Nicolas
Pub Date:
11/01/2011
Publication:
Name: North American Journal of Psychology
Publisher: North American Journal of Psychology Audience: Academic
Format: Magazine/Journal Subject: Education; Psychology and mental health
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2011 North American Journal of Psychology ISSN: 1527-7143
Issue:
Date: Nov, 2011 Source Volume: 13 Source Issue: 3
Topic:
Event Code: 310 Science & research Canadian Subject Form: Hair colourings
Product:
Product Code: 2844350 Hair Colorings NAICS Code: 32562 Toilet Preparation
Manufacturing SIC Code: 2844 Toilet preparations
Geographic:
Geographic Scope: United States Geographic Code: 1USA United States
Accession Number:
274955410
Full Text:
Although hair style and color are a common striking and obvious feature of appearance,
psychological research which focuses on women's hair and particularly on women's hair color
has received little attention (Hinsz, Matz, & Patience, 2001). It has often been suggested in
popular culture that men find women with lighter colored hair to be more attractive.
However, when we examined the literature concerning the effect of hair color on helping
behavior, it was found that this assumption concerning a preference for women with lighter
colored hair was not always verified. Juni and Roth (1985) asked male and female
confederates to approach men and women in the street and to solicit them for spare change.
Confederates either wore brunette wigs or blond wigs. Results showed that the hair color of
the male and female confederates did not affect helping behavior for both male and female
participants. These results did not support the hypothesis of the authors that blond hair could
influence helping behavior. However, further studies showed the reverse effect. Price (2008)
found that blond female door-to-door fundraisers received more donations than their brunette
counterparts. Lynn (2009) solicited waitresses to complete an on-line survey about their
physical characteristics, self-perceived attractiveness and sexiness, and average tips earned. It
was found that higher waitresses' tips were associated with having blond hair. Recently,
Gueguen and Lamy (2009) instructed 20 to 22-year-old female confederates to hitchhike
while wearing a blond, brown or black wig. It was found that blond hair, compared to brown
hair or black hair, was associated with a small but significant increase in the number of male
drivers who stopped to offer a ride whereas no effect for hair color was found on the female
drivers who stopped.

Inconsistent results have been found in the literature; some studies have found a positive
effect of blond colored hair on helping behavior (Gueguen & Lamy, 2009; Lynn, 2009; Price,
2008) while one study found no effect (Juni & Roth, 1985). The difference may be explained
by methodological reasons. First, in Lynn's study and in Price's study, the method used was
correlational and the authors did not control for the age of the women, the length of their hair,
race, etc., which are also factors that could explain the positive effect of hair color on people's
behavior. In Gueguen and Lamy's study and in Juni and Roth's study, the authors used an
experimental design. However, In Juni and Roth's study, the sample size tested by each
confederate was very small (9 pedestrians) and the attractiveness of the two female
confederates was not controlled. In Gueguen and Lamy's study, the authors did not control
for possible confounding variables related to attractiveness, such as makeup or clothing
appearance. Makeup and clothing appearance are associated with variations in helping
behavior toward women (Jacob, Gueguen, Boulbry, Ardicioni, 2009; Long, Mueller, Wyers,
& Jones, 1996).

Given such possible confounding variables found in the literature on hair color, there is a
need for a more controlled study and with large sample sizes. In the present study, female
confederates wearing blond, brown or dark colored wigs solicited large sample sizes of male
and female pedestrians for a donation in the context of a fundraising drive. It was
hypothesized that men would comply more than women with a request coming from a
woman with blond colored hair.

METHOD

Participants
The participants were 1200 men and 1200 women (between the age of approximately 25 and 60)
chosen at random while they were walking alone in pedestrian areas in a medium-sized town (more
than 70,000 inhabitants) located in the west of France on the Atlantic coast of Brittany. The town
traditionally draws a lot of tourists. The experiment was carried out in several places with heavy
pedestrian traffic (stores crowded with customers, famous historic buildings, and the central post
office).

Procedure

Twenty young women (M = 20.6 years, SD = 1.2) served as confederates in this study. They were
selected after being rated by 46 male students as having an average physical attractiveness. Three
different wigs were used in the three experimental conditions but they varied only according to hair
color: the same model was used (mid-length hair and current style). The confederates wore the
same clothes and were instructed not to wear make-up. The experiment was conducted during the
first week of December 2010 in the context of a fundraising drive carried out by the French
Association against Muscular Dystrophy. The association accepted our participation in the
fundraising and the funds collected in this experiment were donated to the association. The clothing
appearance of each of the confederates was nearly identical: black trousers and a black long sleeved
tee-shirt worn under a white tee-shirt. Like all the volunteers for this fundraising drive, each
confederate wore an official badge of the Association against Muscular Dystrophy.

The confederate stationed herself in front of a store and chose a participant walking in her direction.
If a child, an adolescent, an older person, or a group of people passed, the confederate waited until
a person corresponding to the profile (men or women of roughly 25 to 60 years of age walking
alone) walked by. The confederate made contact by saying: "Hello, I'm a volunteer for the
Association against Muscular Dystrophy. You probably already know that we're collecting money this
week to support medical research. Would you be willing to make a donation? This campaign is
carried out all over the country and even a small donation will help us." Then the confederate noted
if the participant agreed or not to her request. In the case of a negative answer, the confederate
thanked the participant. In the case of a positive answer, she waited for the participant to give her
money. The confederate noted the amount and thanked the participant. Then, after thanking the
participant, the confederate noted the sex of the participant, whether he/she accepted the request,
and, depending on the case, the amount of the donation (in Euros).

Each confederate was instructed to test 60 men and 60 women and to change her wig after testing
20 men and 20 women. The order of the wigs worn by the confederate was randomly determined.
To avoid possible variations in the confederates' behavior according to the experimental conditions,
the confederates were not informed about the experimental hypothesis. A pre-test was conducted
in the street in order to train the confederates in the use of the procedure and to verify that they
acted in the same way in the three experimental conditions.

RESULTS

The dependent variables used in this experiment were the number of participants who complied
with the confederates' request (Table 1) and the amount of money donated (Table 2).

Comparing the number of participants who complied with the confederates' request, a 3
(experimental conditions) x 2 (participants' gender) loglinear analysis test was performed and
showed a significant interaction ([[chi square].sub.4 (N= 2400)] = 11.57, p = .02). Comparisons
according to the participants' gender were performed.

An overall difference between the three hair color conditions ([[chi square].sub.2 (N = 1200)] =
18.74, p < .001, r = .12) was found with male pedestrians. Follow-up analysis showed that the
response to blond hair was statistically different from that of black hair ([[chi square].sub.1 (N =
800)] = 16.69, p < .001, r = .14) and for brown hair ([[chi square].sub.1 (N = 800)] = 10.31, p = .001, r
= .12), whereas no statistical difference was observed between the black hair and the brown hair
conditions ([[chi square].sub.1 (N = 800)] = 0.77, p =.38, r = .03). No overall difference between the
three hair color conditions was found ([[chi square].sub.2 (N = 1200)] = 0.14, p = .93, r = .01) with
female pedestrians. Finally, a significant difference between the male and female participants was
found ([[chi square].sub.1 (N = 2400)] = 15.19, p < .001, r = .08).

Regarding the amount of money donated by compliant participants, a 3 (experimental conditions) x

2 (participants' gender) analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed. A main effect of the
experimental condition was found (F(2, 874) = 5.87, p = .02, [[eta].sub.p.sup.2] = .02). The post-hoc
test revealed that the blond condition was statistically different from the brown condition (LSD test,
p <. 001) and the black condition (LSD test, p <. 001), whereas no statistical difference was found
between the brown and the black conditions (LSD test, p = .92). A main effect of participants' gender
was found 874) = 56.90, p < .001, [[eta].sub.p.sup.2] = .04), revealing that, overall, male pedestrians
gave more money than female pedestrians. A significant interaction between pedestrians' gender
and hair color was found F(2, 874) = 5.00, p = .05, [[eta].sub.p.sup.2] = .04) with contrast analysis
revealing that the overall effect of hair color on the donation made was explained by male
pedestrians F(1, 874) = 33.30, p < .001, [[eta].sub.p.sup.2] = .04). A post-hoc test with males'
donation revealed that the blond condition was statistically different from the brown condition (LSD
test, p < .001) and the black condition (LSD test, p = .01), whereas no statistical difference was found
between the brown and the black conditions (LSD test, p = .45).

DISCUSSION

Our results showed that women with blond hair were more frequently (number of donators) and
more generously (amount of donations) helped than women with brown or black hair. However,
these effects were found only when considering male pedestrians, which confirms that hair color is
"gender controlled." These results were not in accordance with those found in the study of Juni and
Roth (1985) in which female confederates wearing blond wigs while soliciting male pedestrians in
the street for spare change did not receive more help than when wearing brunette wigs. This
contradiction is explained by the difference in the sample sizes in the two experiments (36
pedestrians tested in Juni and Roth's study vs. 2400 passersby in the present study), and by the
difference in the type of request for help (spare change vs. a donation to a humanitarian
organization). Such results confirmed and extended those found by Price (2008) who observed that
blond female door-to-door fundraisers received more donations than their brunette counterparts.
However, in his study, Price did not use wigs and the attractiveness of the solicitors was not
controlled. In our experiment, we extended these previous results by adding a new hair color, and
we found that female confederates with the same attractiveness level received more help when
wearing a blond wig. Thus, it seems that hair color, and only hair color, seems to have an influence
on men's donations.

It now remains to explain why we found that blond hair led male pedestrians to help our
confederates more favorably. One possible explanation is that men found our confederates with
blond wigs to be more attractive. Matz and Hinsz (2000) showed that women targets with blond hair
were perceived as younger and healthier than targets with brown hair. Additional studies showed
that youth and health are physical components associated with fertility (Manning, et al., 1997;
Millsted & Frith, 2003). Men who are under pressure to disseminate their genes may be more
sensitive to such physical traits (Buss, 1994). Thus, by becoming blonds, the confederates in the
present study also became more attractive for male passersby and accepting their request was a way
to initiate contact or to prolong the interaction.

Of course, the positive effect of blond hair color found in this experiment could not be extended to
all types of behaviors. Takeda, Helms and Romanova (2006) found that blonds were
underrepresented in positions of corporate leadership in the UK, whereas redheads were
overrepresented. These authors explained these findings by using stereotypes which led to perceive
blonds as incompetent while redheads are seen as competent. Thus, it seems that blond hair is not
always associated with advantages. Further studies are needed to explore the role of hair color on
people's judgment and evaluation, and the role played by hair color on social relationships between
men and women.

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941-948.

Hinsz, V. B., Matz, D. C., & Patience, R. A. (2001) Does women's hair signal reproductive potential.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 166-172.

Jacob, C., Gueguen, N., Boulbry, G., & Ardicioni, R. (2009). Waitresses' Facial Cosmetics and Tipping:
A Field Experiment. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 29, 188-190.

Juni, S., & Roth, M. R. (1985). The influence of hair color on soliciting help. Social Behavior and
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Lynn, M. (2009). Determinants and consequences of female attractiveness and sexiness: Realistic
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Manning, J. T., Scutt, D., Whitehouse, G. H., & Leinster, S. J. (1997). Breast asymmetry and
phenotypic quality in women. Evolution and Human Behavior, 18, 223-236.

Matz, D. C., & Hinsz, V. B. (2000). Many gentlemen do not prefer blonds: perceptions of, and
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