Trust and Credit: The Role of Appearance in Peer-to-peer Lending
研究了P2P借贷中借款人外表可信度对贷款成功率的影响，发现外表更可信的借款人更容易获得贷款，且实际信用更好、违约更少。
Although it is well known that appearance-based impressions affect labor market and election outcomes, little is known about the role appearance plays in financial transactions. We address this question using photographs of potential borrowers from a peer-to-peer lending site. Consistent with the trust-intensive nature of lending, we find that borrowers who appear more trustworthy have higher probabilities of having their loans funded. Moreover, borrowers who appear more trustworthy indeed have better credit scores and default less often. Overall, our findings suggest that impressions of trustworthiness matter in financial transactions as they predict investor, as well as borrower, behavior. A man I do not trust could not get money from me on all the bonds in Christendom. --John Pierpont Morgan, 1913 The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com., Oxford University Press.