Management Papers
Document Type
Conference Paper
Date of this Version
3-25-2014
Publication Source
PNAS
Volume
111
Issue
12
Start Page
4427
Last Page
4431
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1321202111
Abstract
Entrepreneurship is a central path to job creation, economic growth, and prosperity. In the earliest stages of start-up business creation, the matching of entrepreneurial ventures to investors is critically important. The entrepreneur’s business proposition and previous experience are regarded as the main criteria for investment decisions. Our research, however, documents other critical criteria that investors use to make these decisions: the gender and physical attractiveness of the entrepreneurs themselves. Across a field setting (three entrepreneurial pitch competitions in the United States) and two experiments, we identify a profound and consistent gender gap in entrepreneur persuasiveness. Investors prefer pitches presented by male entrepreneurs compared with pitches made by female entrepreneurs, even when the content of the pitch is the same. This effect is moderated by male physical attractiveness: attractive males were particularly persuasive, whereas physical attractiveness did not matter among female entrepreneurs.
Keywords
physical appearance, persuasion
Recommended Citation
Brooks, A., Huang, L., Kenney, S., & Murray, F. E. (2014). Investors Prefer Entrepreneurial Ventures Pitched by Attractive Men. PNAS, 111 (12), 4427-4431. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1321202111
Included in
Advertising and Promotion Management Commons, Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Marketing Commons
Date Posted: 27 November 2017