Insidious Discrimination? Disentangling the Beauty Premium on a Game Show

Belot, Michèle; Bhaskar, V.; van de Ven, Jeroen

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Insidious Discrimination? Disentangling the Beauty Premium on a Game Show

CEPR Discussion Paper No. 6276

41 Pages Posted: 22 May 2007

See all articles by Michèle Belot

Michèle Belot

University of Oxford - Nuffield Department of Medicine

Jeroen van de Ven

University of Amsterdam; Tinbergen Institute

There are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: April 2007

Abstract

This paper analyzes behaviour on a TV game show where players' monetary payoffs depend upon an array of factors, including ability in answering questions, perceived cooperativeness and the willingness of other players to choose them. We find a substantial beauty premium and are able to disentangle contributing factors. Attractive players perform no differently from less attractive ones, on every dimension. They also exhibit and engender the same degree of cooperativeness. Nevertheless, attractive players are substantially less likely to be eliminated by their peers. Our results suggest a consumption value basis for the beauty premium, and it appears that this is a form of insidious discrimination.

Keywords: Beauty premium, discrimination

JEL Classification: C93, D63, J15, J16

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Belot, Michèle V. K. and Bhaskar, V. and van de Ven, Jeroen, Insidious Discrimination? Disentangling the Beauty Premium on a Game Show (April 2007). CEPR Discussion Paper No. 6276, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=988182