MAKING UP IMPRESSIONS: Appearance, Gender, and Perception in Service Consumption
Nome: GABRIELA FIGUEIREDO LIMA
Data de publicação: 28/05/2026
Banca:
Nome |
Papel |
|---|---|
| ADONAI JOSE LACRUZ | Examinador Interno |
| BRUNO DE ALMEIDA VILELA | Examinador Interno |
| FELIPE PANTOJA | Examinador Externo |
| GIULIANA ISABELLA | Examinador Externo |
| MARCELO MOLL BRANDAO | Presidente |
Resumo: Profile pictures are often the first point of contact between consumers and female self-employed
service providers in digital marketplaces. Yet little is known about how the gendered appearance
of a provider’s face shapes occupational inference and the trust judgments that guide consumers’
willingness to engage with her services. Drawing on face-based social perception, role congruity
theory, and service marketing research on trust, this dissertation examines how gendered facial
appearance may influence occupational inference, initial trust, and behavioral intentions in
digitally mediated first-contact encounters.
Across seven experiments organized into three articles, Article 1 examines whether makeup
designed to shift perceived facial gender typicality affects judgments of female self-employed
providers. Feminizing makeup increased trustworthiness in a feminine-typed service but
produced no detectable advantage in a masculine-typed service. Article 2 shows that female
faces elicit structured occupational associations and suggests that a more masculine facial
appearance shifts these associations toward masculine-typed roles without eliminating the
broader tendency to associate women with communal and care-oriented work. Article 3
examines plumbing, a male-typed service context. More role-congruent facial and attire cues
increased perceived occupational role congruence, which was associated with competence-based
trust and, in turn, service-use intentions.
