Facial hair influences trust and attractiveness—but only among a specific group of men

Facial hair can influence how much people trust you—but the effects depend on age and beard style. A new study published in Acta Psychologica found that young men with light stubble were perceived as more attractive, and as a result, they were trusted with more money in a trust-based economic game. However, these effects were not seen for older men or those with full beards.. The research adds nuance to popular beliefs about the so-called “beauty premium,” showing that physical appearance only enhances trust under specific conditions.

The “beauty premium” refers to the idea that attractive individuals tend to receive more favorable treatment in a range of social and economic situations. Studies have found that attractive people are more likely to be hired, earn higher wages, and receive more lenient treatment in court. These advantages may also extend to interpersonal trust.

Since facial hair can shape perceptions of masculinity, dominance, and attractiveness, the researchers at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná in Brazil and Seton Hall University in the United States set out to test whether different beard styles influenced how much people trusted others, and whether age modified this relationship.

“Although the ‘beauty premium’ is well established in the literature, we noticed a scarcity of studies investigating whether individuals could manipulate this ‘premium’ to their advantage,” Angela Cristiane Santos Póvoa and her colleagues told PsyPost. “In 2020, we published a paper in the Journal of Economic Psychology titled ‘Is the Beauty Premium accessible to all?’, which explored the effects of makeup on trust, and found that the application of makeup increased trust levels. This new paper complements the previous one by focusing on men, specifically examining the role of facial hair—particularly beards—and its impact on trust.”

The researchers designed a laboratory experiment based on a standard trust game. A total of 171 university students from Brazil played the role of the trustor—the person deciding how much money to entrust to another player, the trustee. Trustees were not real participants but instead represented by standardized photos of men with different facial hair and age appearances. These images were digitally altered using photo-editing software to create six variations: clean-shaven, light stubble, and full beard, each depicted with either a younger or older appearance.

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Participants played the trust game three times, each time paired with a new trustee photo. After each decision, they rated the trustee’s attractiveness and noted any features that stood out. Trustees’ photos were displayed with neutral expressions, and participants had no other information about them. The amount of money transferred from trustor to trustee served as the measure of trust.

The researchers verified that their photo manipulations were realistic. In a separate task, 43 people attempted to identify which version of a given photo was unaltered. On average, they correctly identified the original image only 11.6% of the time, well below the 16.7% expected by chance. This suggested that the age and facial hair edits were convincingly lifelike.

The results showed no overall effect of beard type on trust. However, older-looking trustees received more money than younger-looking ones, regardless of their facial hair. This supported the idea that age on its own boosts perceived trustworthiness.

But when breaking down the results further, a more complex pattern emerged. Among younger trustees, those with light stubble received significantly more money than their clean-shaven or fully bearded peers. This effect was not present for older trustees.

“Initially, we hypothesized that any type of beard would enhance trust perception,” the researchers said. “However, the results revealed that only light stubble increased trust levels. The effect was not universal, however, as it was present only among younger individuals with light stubble. These findings challenge previous literature that suggests all forms of facial hair uniformly enhance both trust and attractiveness in men.”

Attractiveness ratings followed a similar pattern. Trustees with light stubble were rated as more attractive than clean-shaven ones, and slightly more attractive than those with full beards. Again, these effects were only seen in younger faces. Among older-looking trustees, beard style did not influence perceived attractiveness.

To explore whether attractiveness explained the boost in trust for younger men with stubble, the researchers conducted a statistical mediation analysis. They found that the increase in trust was indirectly driven by increased attractiveness. In other words, the light stubble made young men appear more attractive, and this attractiveness led participants to trust them with more money. No such mediation effect was observed for older men or for other beard styles.

These findings offer partial support for the idea that facial hair enhances trust, but they suggest that this effect is highly dependent on age and beard type. Contrary to previous studies suggesting that all types of facial hair signal trustworthiness, this experiment found that only young men with light stubble benefited from a trust advantage. This aligns with earlier research indicating that light stubble is often considered the most attractive level of facial hair, particularly in short-term social judgments.

“The main message from our paper is that the results indicate that when strangers interact with each other, the probability that someone will trust another individual is also a function of visual cues,” Póvoa and her colleagues said. “Specifically, it seems like people use the presence or absence of beard as one of these visual cues, and the presence of a light stubble increases trust levels.”

While the study provides valuable insights, it also has several limitations. The sample included only Brazilian university students as trustors, limiting generalizability to other cultural contexts or age groups. Trustees were depicted as white men only, and only two broad age groups were represented.

The study also tested only three beard types, leaving out variations like mustaches, goatees, or patchy growth. Cultural associations with facial hair styles, such as the hipster image attached to full beards in Brazilian youth culture, may also influence perceptions in ways not fully accounted for.

“Future research should broaden the age range, cultural settings, and types of facial hair, and consider dynamic stimuli to capture real-world complexity in appearance-based trust decisions,” the researchers said.

“The overarching goal of this research trajectory is to deepen our understanding of how physical appearance influences economic decision-making, particularly in contexts that involve trust, cooperation, and credibility assessments. Building on foundational findings related to the ‘beauty premium’ and appearance-based biases, this line of inquiry aims to contribute to uncover the psychological and social mechanisms that mediate the effects of facial features, such as facial hair, age, and perceived attractiveness, on trust and financial decisions.”

“We believe it would be highly valuable for this research to be replicated in other countries and cultural contexts,” the researchers concluded. “Expanding the cross-cultural scope is one of our key goals, and we are actively seeking new collaborators interested in joining forces to conduct comparative studies. We warmly invite researchers and institutions who share an interest in this topic to connect with us and explore potential partnerships.”

The study, “Is beard the male makeup? An experimental study on trust perception based on appearance,” was authored by Angela Cristiane Santos Póvoa, Wesley Pech, Juan José Camou Viacava, Hendrigo Bernardi Korndorfer, and Lucas Casonato Jacinto.