For every 1-standard-deviation increase in a female opponent´s attractiveness, male participants in large international chess competitions have an 8% greater propensity to play risky openings, but these moves aren´t beneficial for their game performance, says a team led by Anna Dreber of Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden. Female players, by contrast, don´t appear to be affected by the attractiveness of their male partners.
Although there´s no payoff on the chess board, „it could turn out that playing a risky strategy against an attractive female player is beneficial for a male player outside of the chess game,“ the researchers note.
Source: Harvard Business Review, Sept. 4th, 2013
