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

Abstract

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.