I got a lot of crap last week for my post on “Why Guys May Like You Better If You Don’t Wear Perfume.” As one of our readers pointed out, it was supposed to be tongue in cheek but apparently I failed miserably. But even my lousy science writing wasn’t nearly as bad this beauty science story linking hair color and aggression.
Bad ass blondes?
According to the Times Online, a study at the University of California showed that women with lighter hair color are more aggressive and “warlike.” Shocking, eh? But before all the blondes in the audience start sending in hate mail, let me tell you the rest of the story.
Thank god for science bloggers like Ryan Sager at True Slant who do their homework. Ryan questioned the results in the Times article so he sent an email to the author asking for clarification. It turns out the author DID NOT publish the study in question. The author told Ryan, and I quote, “I’m afraid you, and thousands of others for that matter, have been badly misinformed. I have never done any research that shows blondes are more aggressive, entitled, angry or ‘warlike’ than brunette or redheads.” In fact, when the author did break his data down by hair color in actually showed the opposite effect! Apparently the Times Online were sloppy fact checkers, to say the least.
So, there are two things you should take away from today’s post: blondes are not more aggressive then brunettes and red heads and you should always be skeptical when you read science reports in the press. Even when they come from the Beauty Brains!
Thanks to the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast for introducing us to this story.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
1: LOVE the photoshop of Rowan Atkinson on (is that Bo Derek or just some generic blond?) the bathing beauty’s body. BTW: For those who are sadly lacking in the knowledge of the awesomeness of Rowan I have three things to say to you, Blackadder, Thin Blue Line, and Mr. Bean.
2: You had me worried for a second. LOL Okay, I get my blond out of a bottle but I do have a TERRIBLE temper. I say that’s more though partly breeding – my father has a vicious temper when riled too – and partly the fact I was bullied so much and finally partly because I’m the youngest of four and the only girl. Though I do find that because I choose to be blond people do tend to treat me like I’m stupid which makes me very angry. I’m not stupid. I do choose to remain ignorant in subjects I have zero interest in, however.
Sometimes I think it should be illegal for the mainstream media to talk about any sort of “scientific study”. Ok, that was an overstatement but it seems like they get more things wrong than they get right.
It is interesting that they published that blondes were more aggressive. It seems like there’s something about blonde hair in our culture: blondes are seen as your wonderful “all American girls” (For those living in the USA anyway, I don’t know how they are seen in the rest of the world), they are thought to be more sexually appealing, and a little bit air-headed. I can’t help but wonder if perhaps this was slightly intentional (or at the very least some one projecting what they wanted to hear). The media likes to act as though all women hate each other, and given that there are already so many stereotypes about blondes this was probably more interesting than the actual results. If there are a lot of positive stereotypes about blondes (at least in terms of wholesomeness and attractiveness) then it’s more interesting to think of them as aggressive and evil than it would be to say the same of their more “bland” brunette counterparts.
@Jami: If you are a Rowan Atkinson fan then you are 10 times more awesome than I thought before! But I’m sorry I have no idea who the blonde is, I just stole the pic from Cool Iris.
@Mid – Oh yeah, I LOVE Rowan. Of course I’m mostly familiar with him from the shows above (we don’t get Only Fools And Horses here) and movies like Rat Race and Love Actually. I often go to YouTube to watch Warm Welcome and his Invisible Man and invisible drum sketches.
Another UK person I love (besides Alan Rickman) is Michael Crawford. I’d LOVE to see Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em but you can’t get it on DVD here. And BBC America only shows BritComs like Are You Being Served?, Blackadder (which I’ve also seen written as Black Adder), and Keeping Up Appearances. PBS also does AYBS, also Mr. Bean, sometimes Thin Blue Line, As Time Goes By, and A Fine Romance. (I’d love to have the sheet music for A Fine Romance.)
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