Not what you expected to see? Obesity stereotypes, expectancy violations, and angel investment decisions

Torben Antretter, Henrik Wesemann Lekkas, Djordje Djokovic, Vangelis Souitaris and Joakim Wincent

Journal of Business Venturing, 2025, vol. 40, issue 5

Abstract: This article investigates the impact of obesity stereotypes on angel investment decisions. Drawing from the stereotype literature and expectancy violation theory, we propose that angel investors tend to evaluate founders with obesity worse because they perceive them as high in warmth but low in competence (and competence matters more for angel investors' evaluations). However, we also suggest that founders with obesity who violate low-competence stereotypes through high-competence displays can offset negative obesity stereotypes without affecting positive ones, leading to overall higher evaluations. The results from two field studies show that angel investors penalize founders with obesity but that the effect is ameliorated for those presenting high-tech ventures. A follow-up experiment using AI-generated, photorealistic manipulations of founders' body types identifies perceived competence and warmth as mechanisms that explain the effects. Collectively, these findings contribute to the literature streams on appearance in entrepreneurial finance, stereotypes and their violations, and entrepreneurial research methods.

Keywords: Obesity; Negative stereotypes; Angel investments; Expectancy violations; Artificial intelligence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbvent:v:40:y:2025:i:5:s0883902625000382

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2025.106510

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