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The role of physical attractiveness in tennis TV-viewership

Dietl, Helmut; Özdemir, Anil; Rendall, Andrew (2018). The role of physical attractiveness in tennis TV-viewership. UZH Business Working Paper Series 376, University of Zurich.

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 sub-sample 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.

Additional indexing

Item Type:Working Paper
Communities & Collections:03 Faculty of Economics > Department of Business Administration
Dewey Decimal Classification:330 Economics
Scope:Discipline-based scholarship (basic research)
Language:English
Date:10 August 2018
Deposited On:14 Aug 2019 12:46
Last Modified:27 May 2024 15:24
Series Name:UZH Business Working Paper Series
Number of Pages:38
ISSN:2296-0422
OA Status:Green
Other Identification Number:merlin-id:16859

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