Page 20 - Accelerating Research and Impact - Issue 5

17 Accelerating Research and Impact
Features
SOCIAL FINDINGS REVEALED IN PANDEMIC
Both pretty and ugly faces win at social selling
The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted e-commerce around the globe, including the consumer to consumer (C2C) markets on platforms such as social media. Interestingly, Prof Ling PENG, Prof Geng CUI and Prof Yu-ho CHUNG from the Department of Marketing and International Business have found that not only do attractive faces get better results, unattractive faces also achieve better results than plain-looking faces in online selling, particularly in expertise-relevant products and for female consumers evaluating male sellers.
The research team rated over 10,000 hosts from more than 17,000 listings on the online homestay platform Airbnb using their profile pictures, then compared their annual occupancy rates.
Hosts with attractive faces
Hosts with perfect faces
6%
higher annual occupancy rate than those with plain-looking faces
22
higher occupancy rate than those with plain-looking faces
%
Hosts with unattractive faces
Hosts with most unattractive faces
4%
higher annual occupancy rate than those with plain-looking faces
16
higher occupancy rate than those with plain-looking faces
%