The Role of Physical Attractiveness in Tennis TV-Viewership

Helmut Dietl, Anil Özdemir () and Andrew Rendall ()
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Andrew Rendall: Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich

No 376, Working Papers from University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW)

Abstract: What is beautiful is good, the ancient Greek lyric poet Sappho wrote over 2,500 years ago. Studies in social sciences, anthropology, psychology, and economics have shown various effects of physical attractiveness. Physically attractive people are hired more often, receive faster promotion, and generally earn more per hour; thus, there is a beauty premium. However, within the context of sports, little is known about consumer preferences concerning athletes’ physical attractiveness. In this study, we analyze 622 live tennis matches from 66 Grand Slam tournaments between 2000 and 2016, examining the relationship between attractiveness, measured by tennis players’ facial symmetry, and TV-viewership. We show that facial symmetry plays a positive role for female matches while there is no significant effect for male matches. The effect persists in several subsample regressions and robustness checks. Our results have important implications for managers in the field of sports. TV-broadcasters will likely acknowledge additional revenue potential from advertising due to increased viewership and change their programming accordingly. We contribute to the sports management and economics literature in that we introduce a new method to measure facial symmetry and show that physical attractiveness plays a positive role in tennis TV-viewership.

Keywords: physical attractiveness; demand; consumer discrimination; tennis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 L83 Z2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2018-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-spo
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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