“Sex sells” has been a mantra in marketing for decades. As researchers who study consumer behavior, we’ve seen plenty of evidence to support it: Attractive models and spokespeople have been shown to reliably grab attention, boost clicks, and make products seem more desirable.
But our new research suggests that in a digital world full of influencers—trusted tastemakers with large online followings—being too attractive can actually backfire, particularly in the fitness space.
We call this the “beauty backfire effect,” and we put it to the test in a series of laboratory experiments.
We showed hundreds of study participants mock Instagram posts from fictitious fitness influencer accounts. The posts were identical in every way, except for one key difference: how attractive the influencer was. We judged this by asking independent raters to evaluate photos of real influencers ahead of time.
The results were striking: We found that extremely attractive fitness influencers—or “fitfluencers”—got fewer likes and follows than their moderately attractive peers.
Why? Because people viewed them as less relatable.
In fact, in one of our studies, people who saw an extremely attractive fitfluencer reported having lower self-esteem afterward. In contrast, seeing a moderately attractive fitfluencer gave some participants a small confidence boost, likely because the image felt more attainable.
Interestingly, the beauty backfire effect wasn’t as strong in other domains. When we ran the same experiment with finance influencers in the mix, appearance didn’t matter as much. That’s not entirely surprising, of course. For a financial coach, looks aren’t tied to credibility. Meanwhile, for a fitness coach, they’re central.
But the beauty backfire effect isn’t inevitable. In a final analysis, we explored whether self-presentation style could close the relatability gap.
When highly attractive influencers adopted a humble tone, sharing their struggles, training challenges, or fitness plateaus, the engagement gap disappeared, we found. But when they adopted a prideful tone, boasting about their natural talent or exceptional dedication, the gap grew even larger.