How a presenter’s perceived attractiveness affects persuasion for attractiveness-unrelated products

Contrary to the beauty match-up hypothesis, several studies report positive effects of a presenter’s attractiveness for attractiveness-unrelated products. This research demonstrates how, via which paths, the presenter’s attractiveness affects persuasion for attractiveness-unrelated products. For a non-celebrity presenter the positive effect of attractiveness on persuasion is mediated by perceived presenter expertise, presenter trustworthiness, and liking of the advertisement. Previous studies could neither support the relevance of these paths unambiguously nor did they test whether or not perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and liking of the ad fully mediate the attractiveness effect. This study also considers receiver and presenter sex and receivers’ product involvement. The results indicate that attractiveness affects persuasion positively regardless of whether the presenter and receiver are of the same or the opposite sex and regardless of whether receivers are characterised by low or high product involvement.