Scientific Blackpill: Difference between revisions

Wade et al., (2022) conducted a further, more in-depth study that examined how factors such as race interact with baldness and perceptions of physical attractiveness and other socially desirable traits, such as likeability and dominance. In their paper on the subject, they first briefly reviewed prior research that found bald men were rated as less intelligent, likeable, aggressive, and sexually attractive compared to bald men. The prior literature cited in Wade et al's. paper also included studies that found that bald men earned less than fully haired men and that high ranking politicians were less likely to suffer male-pattern hair loss compared to men of comparable age, findings which suggest that balding signals undesirable traits such as senescence which lead to correspondingly poorer social evaluations of bald men in general. Some of the reviewed studies did find baldness was positively associated with certain social evaluations when cues of aggressiveness were preferred, such as during periods of out-group conflict, which suggests that baldness is also linked to perceptions of aggressive dominance, possibly owing to the fact that not only old men are bald but also younger men that shave their hair to signal aggressiveness, like the skinhead subculture for example.

and a good mate. For White men, the manipulated bald image suffered large decrease in attractiveness compared to the image with a full head of hair (''d'' = 1.51, 95% CI 1.1-1.9) while the effect on attractiveness for Black men was non-significant. In addition, the bald pictures were perceived as less friendly, enthusiatic and successful than the pictures of the men with a full head of hair, though these effects were generally attentuated for the Black male subject.  

Wade et al. then conducted a section replication with utilized a sample of 50 young women, aged 19-21. There was a similarly large detrimental effect of baldness on these women's evaluations of the White male's physically attractiveness, at ''d'' = 1.9 (95% CI = 1.43-2.38), which is a very large detrimental effect, while similarly to study 1, the effect of baldness on rated physical attractiveness was non-significant for Black men. In this further study however, baldness had no significant influence on perceptions of trustworthiness or earning potential for the White male picture (though there may have been a trend towards a decline), while in the case of the Black male picture baldness significantly increased perceptions of earning potential. In general, baldness was highly detrimental in terms of subjects ratings of the White male picure while these negative perceptions were either attentuated in the case of ratings of the Black male picture or actually reversed to the extent that the Black subject was evaluated more positively in terms of possessing certain non-physical attractiveness related socially desirable traits. This suggests that the common stereotype that Black men do not lose attractiveness when bald is accurate.

Wade at al. interpreted this racial interaction between baldness and desirable social perceptions by reference to the fact that Black men suffer male pattern baldness at a much lower rate than White men, and when Black men do go bald they often do so at much later ages. Thus, in their view, hair loss for White men may be viewed as a signal of undesirable traits such as poor health and premature senescence, while for Black men it may be viewed as a choice that signals personality traits such as masculinity and dominance in terms of first acqaintance perceptions.

That balding may also hurt physically dominant men less was also suggested by Wade et al.'s study that found that baldness did not decrease attractiveness significantly for a Black male picture, which suggests that perceived physical dominance/masculinity can attentuate the negative effect of baldness on physical attractiveness, as Black men are typically evaluated as being higher than White men on these traits, suggesting that men of other races that possess these traits may also not be as negatively affected by baldness. The large difference in terms of the negative effect baldness had on attractiveness ratings on the men comparing Manne's study vs. Wade et al's may be down to actor effects (the traits that the subject of the manipulated photo had that may have differently influenced perceptions of these subjects between studies), low sample sizes in both studies, or methodological differences, particularly when it comes to the photo manipulation aspects of the respective studies, nevertheless the core finding that balding was detrimental to male attractiveness was replicated.

It seems that, in men, baldness signals a number of traits, including traits that can possible result in divergent perceptions that can influence ratings in a complex manner, i.e., in some men baldness may be viewed as a sign of 'bad genes' and high mutational load (as early onset male pattern baldness, in particular, has been associated with a number of health issues such as heart disease, obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidemia and insulin resistance, as well as certain skin diseases (Jang et al. 2013, Matilainen et al. 2001, Wade et al. 2022, though environment related multicollinear factors have been argued to play a role in the development of both some of these issues and MPD, Lee & Lee, 2012) or aging/senescence, which results in negative perceptions of these men. Non male pattern baldness is also a symptom of various diseases, such as cancer and various autoimmune illnesses, which could compound perceptions of baldness being related to poor health.

While in other cases, baldness can be used to signal physical dominance and a type of social norm defying masculine personality, and this signalling may make certain women more attracted to these men or at least less likely to evaluate them negatively. This suggests that the men that would be expected to suffer the strongest social costs of balding would be younger prematurely bald men that are not physically dominant enough to 'pull off' the bald look effectively.