Preferences for perceived attractiveness in modern dance

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.