Why do we (still) wear make-up?
The Why Factor
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Make Up Enhances Facial Contrast
Faces are historical and cultural documents how we choose to groom. But in recent years, researchers have come to see the desire to beautify as biological as well as cultural. Make up seems to particularly enhance something called facial contrast. It's basically the difference in kind of lightness between persons facial features. This contrast is particularly high in female faces because women tend to have lighter skin,. And our brains use this contrast cue as a way to distinguish who's male and whose female.
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