Beauty premium and penalty in sport: text analysis of Instagram comments in the Korean women’s volleyball league

Purpose This study aimed to explore the impact of players’ performance (points/errors) on fan emotions, focusing on how their characteristics, such as being superstar players and facial attractiveness, potentially moderate this relationship. Additionally, it sought to uncover the presence of a “beauty premium” or “beauty penalty” in the context of professional women’s volleyball by examining its potential implications for fans’ behavior and discrimination. Design/methodology/approach We collected player performance (points/errors) data and game results from 126 games of the 2022–2023 season of the Korean Volleyball Federation and sentiment data from Instagram comments on official team accounts, representing fan emotions in 252 game-result posts. Using a pretrained deep learning model (KcBERT), we estimated the sentiment scores for each comment. We also collected beauty scores for 139 players using the hierarchical multi-task network model. Fixed-effects panel regression models were employed to explore how game outcomes, points and errors influenced fan emotion and whether player characteristics (all-star status and attractiveness) moderated these relationships. Findings Fan emotions were influenced by game outcomes and player characteristics. Fans expressed more positive comments when their team won and scored points; however, their emotional responses differed between all-star and non-all-star players. Notably, a beauty premium was observed when an attractive player made errors, whereas a beauty penalty appeared when they scored points. Originality/value This study advances the use of artificial intelligence to enhance measurement accuracy and efficiency, expanding on prior research by exploring how beauty moderates not only just salaries or prizes but also player performance and fan behavior.