Youjing Luo^1,2 (), Anna Bruns¹, Olivia Cheung³, Denis Pelli¹; ¹New York University, ²New York University Abu Dhabi, ³United Arab Emirates University

How valuable is beauty? The link between perceived beauty and monetary value is an underexplored aspect of psychology and behavioral economics. In this study, we investigated this relationship using an incentive compatible image-auction paradigm, an adaptation of the Becker–DeGroot–Marschak (BDM) procedure that reveals a participant's willingness to pay for an item. Participants (N = 107) received $1, which they used to bid on 16 images. They then rated the beauty of each image on a 0-100 scale and completed questionnaires measuring aesthetic responsiveness (AReA) and risk attitude. We tested i) whether beauty predicts the likelihood of placing a bid, and, ii) conditional on bidding, how beauty affects the bid value. First, using a generalized linear mixed-effects model with random intercepts for participants and images, we found that beauty increases the likelihood of placing a bid. Each 10-point increase in perceived beauty more than doubles the odds of placing a bid. Second, using a linear mixed-effects model on the log-transformed bid values, we found a 12% increase in value for each 10-point increase in beauty. Further moderation analyses showed that individual differences in aesthetic responsiveness and risk attitude moderated the effect of beauty on bidding likelihood, but not on bid value. For people high in aesthetic responsiveness, beauty had a stronger effect on decision to bid. For people high in risk-seeking, beauty had a weaker effect on decision to bid. Our work links beauty to real monetary decisions, and we find that beauty boosts value: People pay more for what they find beautiful.