Using a large sample of individual-level records in Japan speedboat racing where men and women racers participate, we investigated how racers’ performance meets fans’ pre-race expectations. To control for endogeneity bias, we measured the order of racers’ attractiveness randomly determined in each race and then used this order as instrument for measuring racers’ popularity. The fixed-effects IV estimations revealed the following. (1) Racers who are more attractive than their competitors tend to be more popular even after controlling for the condition of the race, racer ability, and other characteristics. (2) More popular men show better performance in the race even if the reward does not vary according to popularity; such tendency is not observed for women. This study contributes a novel setting for determining the expectation-enhancing effects of physical attractiveness.

我们使用了日本男子和女子赛车手参加的日本快艇比赛中个人水平的大量记录，我们调查了赛车手的表现如何满足车迷的赛前期望。为了控制内生性偏差，我们测量了每个种族中随机确定的赛车手吸引力的顺序，然后将此顺序用作衡量赛车手受欢迎程度的工具。固定效应IV估计显示以下内容。（1）比竞争对手更具吸引力的赛车手即使在控制了比赛条件，赛车手的能力和其他特征之后，也往往会更受欢迎。（2）即使奖励没有根据受欢迎程度而变化，更多的受欢迎的男人在比赛中表现出更好的表现；妇女没有观察到这种趋势。