Source credibility as a function of communicator physical attractiveness

An experimental investigation of the relationship between communicator physical attractiveness and source credibility within a marketing context is reported. Source credibility measures involved perception of trust, expertise, and liking as a function of experimental treatments that differed in only the physical attractiveness of the communicator. Communicator physical attractiveness is operationally defined as the degree to which a person's face is pleasing to observe, and is determined through a consensus of judges. The marketing context involved persuasive communications presented in a printed advertisement mock-up. Generally, the hypotheses were supported by the results of the data analyses. Monotonic relationships were found between communicator physical attractiveness and (a) perceived trust, (b) perceived expertise, and (c) liking for the communicator.