Can Lawyers’ Facial Attractiveness Increase the Popularity or Customer Satisfaction? An Example of Expert Q&A Services

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of facial attractiveness on popularity and customer satisfaction. We conducted an empirical analysis using 7,525 professional experts’ photographs provided by a well-known expert question-and-answer (Q&A) platform in China. The findings showed that, although experts’ facial attractiveness positively affected their popularity, it negatively impacted their customer satisfaction. However, these relationships were moderated by gender. Facial attractiveness had a stronger positive effect on popularity for female experts than for male experts. By contrast, facial attractiveness negatively impacted satisfaction for female experts but had no significant effect for male experts. This study discusses the managerial implications of the findings and avenues for future research. Funding: Y.-T. Hsu was supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [Grant 2023M732269].