In the "THe VILLaIN aRC oF VANiTY SiZINg" section, vanity sizing is framed as marketing strategy which is successful because of the psychology around that - linking out to https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10577... for more detail.

It certainly wouldn't be the first time the most profitable marketing strategy is unrelated to aligning with what's optimal for the consumer.

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apt-apt-apt-apt 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Translating the confusing science speak, basically:

Appearance self-esteem takes a hit when they don't fit in a size. They take it out on the clothes: "I hate their stuff, they suck." They buy more of other stuff to compensate for the hit, whether non-sized accessories (I am pretty) or book/tech (I am smart even if I don't fit).

People confident in their appearance are immune to the effect, and simply think it's sized wrong or runs small.

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goodmythical 8 hours ago | parent [-]

I am genuinely curious as to which words in the cited are 'confusing science speak' in your view.

Having read the article, I can't venture a guess without feeling condescending...non-conforming? Compensatory?

Legitimately confused.

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apt-apt-apt-apt 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They use precise but indirect terminology e.g., "heightened level of appearance self-esteem" rather than "confident in their appearance".

Indirect phrasing e.g., "they respond more favorably to products that can help to repair their damaged appearance self-esteem" rather than something direct and easy to understand like "they feel bad that they don't fit, so they end up buying other things like makeup/jewelry to feel better about their appearance".

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fao_ 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Maybe it's me, but only the first quote seems cumbersome, and wasn't very cumbersome in the article when I read it in context.

	▲	nikanj an hour ago \| parent [-]
		”I had no issues with complex sentence structure, therefore the whole planet is fluent in english and college-level literate” Simpler language is an accessibility issue

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zamadatix 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I think they read the full paper rather than the snippets and agree most couldn't tell you what Cronbach's alpha is, how ANOVA works, or otherwise accurately interpret the meaning of the results sections in a casual read through. One can grab the full paper on resources such as Anna's Archive if they don't have access via a university or such.

Of course, the trick (once you know) is you don't need a comment summarizing it for you. The abstract is alright in a pinch, but the "General Discussion" in psychology papers is the equivalent of "Conclusion" and aims to discuss the results directly. It's still a bit verbose... but the language should at least be very familiar in comparison.

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AmbroseBierce 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Of course education could help about this and other psychologically manipulative tactics by corps but such kind of education is heavily frowned upon for being seeing as anti-capitalist and (more propagandistic) as un-american, so there is zero of such kind of education.

	▲	rcbdev 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Thankfully, for most people on Earth, the prospect of seeming "Un-American" is not relevant. It's also not a problem to argue against free-market economies - see Austria's second biggest city (Graz), which has an elected mayor from the communist party. These seem like uniquely U.S.-American issues.
	▲	altairprime 8 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I mourn for the retreat of critical reasoning skills from modern U.S. early education systems.