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Scholars' physical appearance, research performance and feelings of happiness

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  • Dilger, Alexander
  • Lütkenhöner, Laura
  • Müller, Harry

Abstract

Our study aims to analyse whether former feelings of happiness and/or physical appearance have influence on the subsequent observable research performance of scholars. Therefore we photographed 49 persons attending the 72nd annual conference of the German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB), which took place in Bremen in 2010. We interviewed them about their feelings of happiness. Later we asked students to evaluate the photographed persons' attractiveness, competence, trustworthiness, likeability and their feelings of happiness. To determine the academics' research performance we compiled a list of their recent journal publications, considering different journal weights and dividing them by the number of authors. Regression analyses reveal that feelings of happiness in 2010 significantly increase research performance in 2011/2012. In addition, they suggest that scholars' physical appearance can affect their research performance. In particular we observe that a trustworthy appearance has a significantly positive effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Dilger, Alexander & Lütkenhöner, Laura & Müller, Harry, 2013. "Scholars' physical appearance, research performance and feelings of happiness," Discussion Papers of the Institute for Organisational Economics 6/2013, University of Münster, Institute for Organisational Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:umiodp:62013
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    1. Groom yourself to publish better research?
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2013-07-31 19:10:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Weilong Bi & Ho Fai Chan & Benno Torgler, 2020. "“Beauty” premium for social scientists but “unattractiveness” premium for natural scientists in the public speaking market," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Hale, Galina & Regev, Tali & Rubinstein, Yona, 2023. "Do looks matter for an academic career in economics?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 406-420.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • M00 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - General - - - General
    • M50 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - General

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