Does vanity boosts the consumption of cosmetics and aesthetic surgical procedures in women? An exploratory investigation

This paper aims to understand female vanity and to investigate whether there is any impact of vanity with self-esteem and involvement with beauty and if it reflects in the consumption of aesthetic procedures. A set of 9 hypotheses is developed. The paper includes a discussion about beauty and its relevance for the contemporary society. A survey was conducted with 210 women that responded to a questionnaire containing two scales, vanity and beauty involvement, as well as questions about type and frequency of various aesthetic procedures. Discriminant validity of constructs was tested with a confirmatory factor analysis and analysis of the hypotheses used a structural equation modeling. The results highlight significant impact of vanity on aesthetic procedures. The higher the vanity, the greater the degree of body self-esteem, but there is a negative impact on self-esteem and surgical procedures.

本研究旨在探析女性虚荣心（vanity）的内在意涵，探究虚荣心对自尊及美容参与度是否存在影响，并验证该影响是否体现在美容医美项目的消费行为中。本研究共提出9项研究假设，并围绕美容议题及其在当代社会中的重要价值展开讨论。研究面向210名女性开展问卷调查，问卷包含两套标准化量表——虚荣心量表与美容参与度量表，同时设置了关于各类美容医美项目的类型与消费频率的相关问题。本研究采用验证性因子分析（Confirmatory Factor Analysis, CFA）检验各构念的区分效度，并通过结构方程模型（Structural Equation Modeling, SEM）对研究假设进行实证检验。研究结果显示，虚荣心对美容医美项目消费存在显著影响：虚荣心越强，个体的身体自尊水平越高，但虚荣心对整体自尊与外科整形类医美项目消费存在负向影响。