According to a new study, investors prefer business pitches by attractive men.

The study was published in the National Academy of Sciences, and was conducted by researchers from Harvard, Wharton, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  

It analyzed several business pitches from experiments including a real pitch competition in the U.S. 

In the first experiment, researchers recruited 60 investors and asked them to watch videos of people pitching ideas. Afterward, investors submitted a rating of how persuasive the pitches were and the attractiveness of the person making the proposals. 

The study showed a gender gap among the ratings. It found that investors are more likely to chose attractive men for business ventures. 

The results also found that investors didn't care how appealing the women were, females still received a lower rating than male counterparts despite physical attractiveness. 

"We identify a profound and consistent gender gap in entrepreneur persuasiveness. Investors prefer pitches presented by male entrepreneurs compared with pitches made by female entrepreneurs, even when the content of the pitch is the same," according to the study.

In another experiment, researchers allowed non-investors to hear pitches online and grade the persuasiveness of what they heard without seeing the actual person. 

Again, male presenters were given a higher rating than females, even when the content was identical. 

Men outnumber women in entrepreneurship, only  7 percent of women in the U.S. own businesses in comparison to 10 percent of men.