More attractive female company founders more likely to receive capital, according to study
Published: Thursday, Jun 27th 2024, 10:20
Volver a Live Feed
In the human brain, a beautiful appearance is often automatically associated with positive characteristics such as competence or intelligence. A study by the University of St. Gallen now shows that this helps female company founders to raise money.
Female start-up entrepreneurs who were perceived as attractive had a greater chance of obtaining capital in an experiment conducted by the Health Span Lab at the University of St. Gallen in collaboration with scientists from the Universities of Zurich and Notre Dame. The 111 male investors in the experiment were 21 percent more willing to give money to attractive female founders. According to a press release issued on Thursday, this confirms the "halo effect" known from psychology. This states that people who are considered attractive are often also considered to be professionally competent.
The researchers' thesis was actually quite different: in some cases, this "halo effect" turns into the opposite. "Especially in a management context, attractive women tend to be denied competence by men, which is also known as 'beauty is beastly'," study author Robert Schreiber from the HSG is quoted as saying in the press release.
This is why they had actually expected that good-looking female company founders would receive less money in a start-up pitch than less attractive female founders. "Contrary to our expectations, physical attractiveness had a positive effect," says Schreiber.
But it wasn't just the so-called "halo effect" that worked. According to the authors of the study, when the prettier women presented their start-ups, the investors had significantly higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol. And increased cortisol levels correlate with the likelihood of a positive investment decision, according to the press release. "We know from previous research that the release of the stress hormone cortisol and the sex hormone testosterone leads to increased risk-taking behavior, which can be reflected in an increased willingness to invest," the press release states. In the experiment, the subjects' cortisol and testosterone levels were therefore measured before and after the pitch.
©Keystone/SDA
Spanish 
English 
German 
French 
Arabic