Beauty may not be in the eye of the beholder

According to recent US research, injections with Botulinum toxin A lead others to form more positive first impressions regarding an individual’s attractiveness, dating success and athleticism.

Researchers, who presented the work at the recent annual meeting of the American Academy of Olalaryngology – Head and Neck surgery held last month, wanted to investigate whether first impression judgements might be affected by Botox injections.

They took photos of subjects about to undergo the procedure and compiled a collection of before and after photos.

Photo judgement​

These photos were displayed in books for judgement by evaluators, however only one photo of each subject (before or​ after) was included into each collection.

Evaluators were then asked to judge the photos on a number of criteria including attractiveness, dating success, athleticism, social skills, financial success and relationship success.

Photos of individual’s who had undergone the injections scored better with evaluators on scales of attractiveness, dating success and somewhat more intriguingly, athletic success.

Botox not a life changer​

However, the authors did not find any positive correlation between the injections and increased scores regarding social skills, financial or relationship success.

The popularity of such non-surgical cosmetic treatments is growing significantly.

Allergan, the pharmaceutical giant behind Botox injections which dominates the market, recorded a sales increase of 29 per cent in 2007 and predicted further sales increases for 2008.

In comparison, sales for non-aesthetic uses of the product grew at only 19 per cent.

In total, Allergan reported $1.21bn worth of sales for the products during the year.