Judging a book by its cover: Fund investors’ physical attractiveness stereotypes and investor behavior

Feng，Guo3; Zhuo，Jiayi1; Hou，Fangzhuo2; Yan，Shuo1

2024-06-01

10.1016/j.jbef.2024.100908

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance   影响因子和分区

2214-6350

2214-6369

This paper documents that fund investors’ behavior is biased by the physical attractiveness stereotypes that they hold about fund managers. In an experimental setting, we find that although there is no information about highly attractive fund managers outperform their peers, respondents still perceive highly attractive managers to possess superior management skills and are willing to allocate more money to their managed funds. We further find that provision of information in contrast to the assumptions associated with physical attractiveness stereotypes diminishes the bias in investor behavior. When less attractive managers have historical returns that are 4% higher than more attractive managers, investors’ preference for attractive faces is overridden. Empirical evidence obtained using fund market data is consistent with our experimental results.

Beauty premium Face information Machine learning Stereotypes

SSCI

英语

通讯

2-s2.0-85186962977

Scopus

1.Department of Finance,Southern University of Science and Technology,China
2.School of Accounting and Finance,The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,Hong Kong
3.School of Accounting,Guangdong University of Finance and Economics,China

Feng，Guo,Zhuo，Jiayi,Hou，Fangzhuo,等. Judging a book by its cover: Fund investors’ physical attractiveness stereotypes and investor behavior[J]. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance,2024,42.

Feng，Guo,Zhuo，Jiayi,Hou，Fangzhuo,&Yan，Shuo.(2024).Judging a book by its cover: Fund investors’ physical attractiveness stereotypes and investor behavior.Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance,42.

Feng，Guo,et al."Judging a book by its cover: Fund investors’ physical attractiveness stereotypes and investor behavior".Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance 42(2024).