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Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title The role of facial attractiveness in tennis TV-viewership
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Helmut Max Dietl
  • Anil Özdemir
  • Andrew Rendall
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Sport management review
Publisher Taylor & Francis
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 1441-3523
Volume 23
Number 3
Page Range 521 - 535
Date 2020
Abstract Text Social sciences, anthropology, psychology, and economics researchers have shown various effects of physical attractiveness. In this study, the authors analyze 622 live tennis matches from 66 Grand Slam tournaments between 2000 and 2016, examining the relationship between facial attractiveness, measured by tennis players’ facial symmetry, and TV-viewership. Results indicate 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. The findings have important implications for managers in the field of sports. While public broadcasters have a public service function and therefore should be careful in exploiting consumer biases to avoid reinforcing non-sports taste-based discrimination types. Commercial broadcasters and media institutions with solely profit-maximizing objectives will likely exploit consumer biases.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1016/j.smr.2019.04.004
Other Identification Number merlin-id:18107
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