Colorism and Usage of Makeup and its Effect on Self-esteem and Fear of Negative Appearance in Females

Abstract

Women in South Asia are prone to be discriminated against based on their skin, with higher use of cosmetics and a high prevalence of psychological distress. This study aims to study the effect of colorism and usage of makeup on self-esteem and fear of negative appearance evaluation in young females. With a snowball sampling, young female participants (N = 212; mean age = 20.5 years; SD = 1.97) from Bengaluru, India, completed self-report measures of makeup usage, skin tone, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Fear of Negative Appearance evaluation scale. With the Kruskal-Wallis H test, it was found that skin tone affected on self-esteem and had little to no effect on fear of negative appearance evaluation. It was also found that makeup has no effect on self-esteem, whereas individuals with a high fear of negative appearance evaluation had more significant makeup usage.