118 women participated in the study—58 of whom were teenagers aged 13-18, and 60 of whom were young adults aged 17-25. Candidates were assigned one of Amanda’s profiles at random and asked a series of questions on how they perceived her, with physical attractiveness, likeability, and competence being ranked. Both pages listed the same information, with Amanda’s interests including Twilight, Lady Gaga, and The Notebook.

The non-sexy profile scored higher on every count, confirming that people always judge a book by its cover—especially when that cover’s a little scandalous. Indeed, the biggest dip in the rankings was the response to the competency question, where participants were asked how capable Amanda seemed of being able to perform a task. Her risqué get-up obviously made it challenging for people to believe that she had any abilities at all.

There’s no moral high ground to be claimed here: we’re socialized to think that anyone whose dress sense doesn’t toe the line must have the intellectual capacity of a turnip, so it’s not surprising that Hot Mandy didn’t go down too well with her peers. Sad, sure, but not surprising.