Study shows: Women would trade years of life for beauty

In order to get closer to our ideal of beauty, we do a lot to our bodies: We press on it, pull out hair, cut it open, stuff it, sew it up again, suck parts of it off and pierce it with syringes - to put it very drastically and certainly not universally valid. Some even risk their lives with dangerous cosmetic surgeries to look perfect. But apparently many would go much further: one in five women would give up years of their life to meet certain ideals of beauty. That's the result of a major new study.

Cosmetics company Dove conducted an online survey in 20 countries between November and December 2023, including Germany, India, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and the USA. More than 33,000 people between the ages of 18 and 64 took part in the survey, including men and boys. The results that Dove now has in the„2024 The Real State of Beauty: A Global Report“published are shocking:

More than a third of women in Germany (36 percent) would sacrifice a year of their life or more to achieve their own ideal of beauty. And one in five women (20 percent) would even sacrifice five years of life to achieve society's ideal of beauty. This trend is particularly noticeable among young women between the ages of 18 and 24 - every second woman would sacrifice at least a year of life for beauty. But that's not all: one in five women would even sacrifice up to five years of their life to meet society's ideal of beauty. In addition, around 20 percent of women would give up their dream job for a perfect appearance.

And what would this ideal of beauty look like that people would be willing to die for earlier? We seem to have a kind of checklist in mind for this too: 76 percent feel pressured to look healthy. 68 percent want to look slim or thin, 66 percent want to look young, 64 percent want a slim waist, and 57 percent would prefer more curves. The sad truth is that the desire for beauty is not just superficial; behind it lies the belief that life is easier for beautiful people. In the Dove study, 61 percent of women are of the opinion that attractive people have better access to life opportunities.

Despite the body positivity movement, despite (a few) curvy models on the catwalks, despite great overweight role models in a wide variety of areas: the pressure to achieve perfection seems to be getting greater and greater. In the Dove study, more than seven in ten women say the pressure to be beautiful has increased immensely for them over the last eight years. On the one hand, advertising is certainly to blame: 73 percent of the participants surveyed are of the opinion that advertising sets an unrealistic standard of beauty - one that most would never achieve.

But thanks to social media and artificial intelligence, new sources of uncertainty have emerged. One in three women (31 percent) and almost one in four girls (37 percent) in Germany feel pressured to change their appearance because of the content they see online - even if they are aware that it is adulterated or generated by AI are. Over 60 percent of women and more than 70 percent of girls in Germany make it clear that they have already been confronted with manipulated and therefore dangerous beauty content on social media.

The Dove study shows in a shocking way how much we would be willing to invest in our appearance. No price seems too high if we are promised visual flawlessness in return. Beauty is much more than a narrow waist and a wrinkle-free waist. An exciting hobby or a life-affirming attitude also makes us attractive - qualities that perfect, AI-generated beauty on social media does not possess.