TY - JOUR
T1 - Attractive People Make Better Music? How Gender and Perceived Attractiveness Affect the Evaluation of Electronic Dance Music Artists
AU - Schaap, Julian
AU - Berghman, Michaël
AU - Calkins, Thomas
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
PY - 2022/8/15
Y1 - 2022/8/15
N2 - We employ a cognitive sociological perspective to empirically assess how the evaluation of music fragments – electronic dance music (EDM) in particular – is affected by the perceived attractiveness of a DJ, in relation to their gender. Using a survey experiment based on randomized vignettes within a sample of the US population (n = 2710), in which respondents evaluate music fragments randomly paired with images of DJs, we assess to what extent music evaluations are affected by artists’ 1) gender, 2) perceived attractiveness, and 3) the interaction between these traits (while controlling for race/ethnicity and respondent characteristics). We find a strong positive relationship between artists’ perceived attractiveness and how ‘their’ music is evaluated. While this is true regardless of DJ gender, attractiveness benefits male artists slightly more than female artists. These findings provide further empirical support for the notion that audiences include non-musical traits about artists in music evaluation processes.
AB - We employ a cognitive sociological perspective to empirically assess how the evaluation of music fragments – electronic dance music (EDM) in particular – is affected by the perceived attractiveness of a DJ, in relation to their gender. Using a survey experiment based on randomized vignettes within a sample of the US population (n = 2710), in which respondents evaluate music fragments randomly paired with images of DJs, we assess to what extent music evaluations are affected by artists’ 1) gender, 2) perceived attractiveness, and 3) the interaction between these traits (while controlling for race/ethnicity and respondent characteristics). We find a strong positive relationship between artists’ perceived attractiveness and how ‘their’ music is evaluated. While this is true regardless of DJ gender, attractiveness benefits male artists slightly more than female artists. These findings provide further empirical support for the notion that audiences include non-musical traits about artists in music evaluation processes.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135969366&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/02762374221118526
DO - 10.1177/02762374221118526
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85135969366
SN - 0276-2374
VL - 41
SP - 284
EP - 303
JO - Empirical Studies of the Arts
JF - Empirical Studies of the Arts
IS - 1
ER -