The beauty premium: Physicians’ facial expressions and patients’ selection and evaluation behavior in online health communities

Abstract

BackgroundWith the development of information technology, online health communities (OHCs) are becoming an increasingly popular source of health information. ObjectivesWhile the impact of beauty has been extensively studied in various research fields, its role in OHCs has received little attention. This study aims to evaluate the effect of physicians’ appearance, smile, and positive emotions on patients’ selection and evaluation behavior in OHCs. Additionally, it explores the difference in the beauty premium among different types of physicians. MethodsOver 13,000 images of physicians and their relevant information were collected from the Good Doctor website, which is now China's leading OHC. We identified facial features in physicians’ photos based on deep learning and used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models to estimate the relationship between physicians’ facial expressions and patients’ behavior. We used PSM to address endogeneity issues and test the robustness of the results. ResultsThis study found that physicians’ appearance and smile positively impact patients’ selection and evaluation behavior, the results indicated that the beauty premium does exist in OHCs. In addition, heterogeneity analysis showed that the beauty of high titles, longer service duration of physicians has a greater influence on patients’ selection and evaluation behavior. ConclusionsThe beauty premium exists in OHCs. Therefore, this study provides new evidence on the impact of physicians’ facial attractiveness in OHCs and provides useful insights for patients, physicians, and platforms about the relationship between physician's structured or unstructured information and patients’ decision-making behaviors.