While previous research has demonstrated the effect of implicit theories (i.e. the belief whether human attributes are fixed or malleable) on attitudes and behaviors in many domains, such a relationship has not been investigated in the domain of beauty. In this research, we examine the effect of implicit theories of beauty on how consumers access their actual versus ideal self, and how they experiment the self, in turn influencing brand variety seeking. We theorize that believing beauty is fixed (versus malleable) would make the ideal, desired self more accessible, as entity theorists tend to orient more towards performance goals, ones that ensure the desired judgments (Dweck, Hong, & Chiu, 1993) while incremental theorists strive to enhance their ability (i.e. learning goals) (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). In an experiment using a reaction time task, we found that participants who were primed with an incremental theory of beauty (i.e. beauty is malleable) took longer to react to words that describe their ideal self compared to words that describe their actual self. On the contrary, participants who were primed with the entity theory of beauty (i.e. beauty is fixed) reacted towards ideal self related words as quick as the actual self related words. Results from this experiment shows that when people believe is fixed, their ideal self is as accessible as their actual self. Believing beauty is fixed activates the yearn to possess characteristics that one desires, making the ideal, desired self more accessible. We further examined the effect of implicit theories of beauty on experimenting tendency and brand variety seeking, as experimenting different looks by using cosmetic products might be a way to experience multiple ideal selves. With a sample of over 1200 female consumers in four countries, including two Asian countries (Indonesia and Thailand) and two Western countries (the UK and Australia), we found a consistent pattern that the beauty is fixed (vs. malleable) belief is associated with greater tendency to experiment with beauty looks, which in turn leads to higher variety seeking of beauty brands. This result demonstrated that beauty essentialism can be a universal mechanism that drive behaviour in a beauty domain. Our finding provides insights for the marketing of beauty products. We show that beauty essentialism is a factor that drives consumer’s desire for their ideal self, similarly drives the tendency to experiment with new makeup looks as a way to express the multiple ideal selves. The belief whether beauty is fixed or malleable is thus a factor that customer segmentation can be based on. Further, communicating the message that beauty is fixed might motivate the consumers to try out new makeup products. Our findings further shed lights on some of the strategies that are currently implemented by companies. For instance, does Dove’s Real Beauty campaign really encourage consumers to embrace their actual beauty, or does it in fact make them desire for the ideal beauty even more?

• Natalie T. Faust(Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
• Lewis Lim(Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
• Neil Gains(TapestryWorks, Singapore)
• George I. Christopoulos(Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)