Abstract
The role of attractiveness in the arts, an area that inherently deals with esthetics, is one way in which consumer decisions may have economic effects. Focusing on consumer (or audience member) preferences, this paper explores the relationship between audience members’ perceived attractiveness of dancers and their willingness to pay (WTP) for a modern dance performance. One of our contributions is through primary data collected using a series of four video recordings of self-choreographed modern dance solos. Using a dataset of 1,989 observations, we investigate the extent that the audience members’ perceived attractiveness of a dancer is related to their WTP for a modern dance performance using tobit and binomial logit models. The findings reveal evidence of a positive relationship between dancers’ perceived attractiveness and WTP for modern dance performances and an even stronger relationship between audience members’ perceived attractiveness of dancers and their willingness to re-watch or watch more of the performance. Aside from the performing dancer, the audience members’ perceived attractiveness of the other dancer also has a significant relationship with WTP and willingness to watch the performance.
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Notes
Of the dance company EVIDENCE.
See Table 2 for a summary of the variables collected and in Appendix 1 for specific questions pertaining to the visual elements of the modern dance performance.
Although the dancers’ bodies are similar in shape and size, slight differences in actual body measurements may impact audience members’ attractiveness judgements of dancers.
While we hypothesize that the coefficient on the audience member’s perceived attractiveness of the dancer is positively related to their willingness to pay, we conduct a two-tailed test. This is because the perceived attractiveness of dancer 1 is hypothesized to have a positive relationship to the WTP for dancer 1, but it is possible that the perceived attractiveness of dancer 1 may have a negative relationship to the WTP for dancer 2.
Appendix 2 shows estimates from a linear probability model as a robustness check. The sign and significance of the attractiveness of the other dancer is similar in how it relates to one’s willingness to watch a dancer’s performance again.
Findings from a linear probability model, shown in Appendix 2, also show a positive relationship between the dancers’ perceived attractiveness on the audience’s willingness to watch more of the dance.
We consider six years of modern dance education to be advanced as it would coincide with a four-year degree plus a Master of Fine Arts or the two-year equivalent of specific training in modern dance.
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This study was funded by the Department of Economics at The College of Wooster and the Henry J. Copeland Fund for Independent Study.
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Rachel Lau received research grants from the Department of Economics at The College of Wooster and the Henry J. Copeland Fund for Independent Study. The authors declare that they have no other conflicts of interest.
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We are grateful to Phil Mellizo, Amyaz Moledina, and session participants at the 2019 Eastern Economics Association Conference for their helpful comments and advice. We want to thank The Department of Economics at The College of Wooster and the Henry J. Copeland Fund for Independent Study for funding this project.
Appendices
Appendix 1 Survey Questions on Visual Elements of Performance
Appendix 2
See Table
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Lau, R., Krause, B. Preferences for perceived attractiveness in modern dance. J Cult Econ 46, 483–517 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-021-09424-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-021-09424-5