Appearance-Based Legitimate Distinctiveness: Founder Attractiveness, Gender, and Venture Evaluations

This study proposes a way to reconcile the beauty premium and beauty-is-beastly arguments by suggesting that founder appearance is processed through two separable and countervailing channels: perceived legitimacy and perceived distinctiveness. We further theorize that in startups, the relationship is gendered, because women do not fit the entrepreneurial prototype, limiting their perceived legitimacy. A field study of 359 founders supports our theorizing that male founders are evaluated best when moderately attractive, while female founders see no significant attractiveness effects. A preregistered experiment with 771 participants, using AI-manipulated attractiveness, does not confirm these patterns but supports our theorizing about both mediators.