Mirror, mirror—A gendered lens on female entrepreneurs’ facial attractiveness in reward-based crowdfunding

Abstract

Scholars investigating women's attractiveness have documented its disadvantages (the “beauty is beastly” effect), especially in male-typed domains, including entrepreneurship. However, reward-based crowdfunding research demonstrates that these platforms reverse gender biases typically found in traditional entrepreneurial finance. Thus, in reward-based crowdfunding, the adverse effect of women's attractiveness needs to be re-examined. In a sample of 7447 Kickstarter projects, we find that facial attractiveness increases funding success for women more than for men and that sex differences in attractiveness effects are greater in male-typed categories like technology. A post-hoc reveals a surprising attractiveness penalty for men in the technology sector and offers insights for future research.