Bit of slap: Make-up makes people look more beautiful and competent, but negatively affects judgements of trustworthiness. Images used by the scientists show models wearing no make-up, left, and increasing amounts as we move to the right.

As many women can testify, there's a fine line between pretty and scary when it comes to make-up.

化妆是漂亮还是吓人就在一线之间，这一点许多女人都能证实。

Now, scientists have shown that not only does the right amount of cosmetics make all the difference when it comes to beauty, but it also affects judgements of competence and trustworthiness.

如今，科学家指出，化妆浓淡不仅能影响美丑，还能影响人们对能力和可信赖性的判断。

For all of their positive effects on looking and feeling good, large amounts of make-up soon start to negatively impact on the way people perceive an individual's honesty.

化妆能让人看起来更漂亮，使人自我感觉良好，但化浓妆则会让人们质疑一个人的正直。

In the study, funded by Procter &Gamble, scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston University and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute asked participants to rate various looks in terms of competence, likeability, attractiveness and trustworthiness.

在保洁公司出资赞助的这一研究中，来自麻省总医院、哈佛医学院、波士顿大学和达纳法伯癌症研究所的科学家们让参与者对不同的形象在能力、可亲度、吸引力和可信赖性方面做出评价。

Pictures of women wearing no make-up, and looking "natural", "professional," and "glamorous," were shown to volunteers for different lengths of time.

研究人员让参与者在不同长度的时间内分别观看了素颜女人、妆容自然的女人、职业妆女人和妆容美艳的女人的照片。

When shown the images for just 250milliseconds, all ratings went up with the amount of make-up, says the report, published by Plosone.org.

公共科学图书馆综合研究机构发布的这一研究报告称，当参与者观看这些照片的时间为250毫秒时，随着妆容的加重，人们的评价也全面上升。

However, when study participants were allowed to take inthe pictures at length, the results changed significantly.

然而，当参与者可以细细观看这些照片时，评价结果却发生了重大改变。

Nancy Etcoff, the study's lead author and associate researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital told ABC news that "we found that when faces were shown very quickly, all ratings went up with cosmetics in all different looks."

该研究的首席作者、麻省总医院的副研究员南希 埃特考夫告诉美国广播公司新闻网说：“我们发现，当我们快速地展示这几张脸时，人们对于相貌不同的人的评价都是随着妆容的加重而上升。”

"The women were judged as more competent, likeable, attractive and trustworthy."

“人们认为化了妆的女人更能干、更可亲、更有魅力、更值得信赖。”

Given more than just a glimpse of the images, participants showed that beauty and competence went up, but trustworthiness - or honesty - soon suffered as cosmetic looks became heavier.

但是，在参与者长时间地端详这些脸之后，他们的评价显示，随着妆容的加重，女人显得更漂亮、更能干，但可信赖度或诚实度却下降了。

"When they got to the more dramatic make-up looks, people saw them as equally likeable and much more attractive and competent, but less trustworthy," comments Etcoff to the news site.

埃特考夫告诉该新闻网说：“当人们看到化浓妆的脸时，人们认为她们看起来同样可亲，而且更有魅力、更能干，但是却没那么值得信赖。”