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Hot or not: do professors perceived as physically attractive receive higher student evaluations?
Todd C Riniolo1, Katherine C Johnson, Tracy R Sherman
1Department of Psychology, Medaille College, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA. triniolo@medaille.edu
The Journal of General Psychology
|February 16, 2006
Summary
Student evaluations of college professors are influenced by perceived physical attractiveness. Attractive professors received higher ratings by 0.8 points on a 5-point scale across four universities.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Education
Background:
- Research on physical attractiveness and student evaluations of professors is limited.
- Existing studies often lack ecological validity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of perceived physical attractiveness on student evaluations of college professors.
- To add ecological validity to the limited research in this area.
Main Methods:
- Utilized naturally occurring data from www.ratemyprofessors.com.
- Compared student evaluations of attractive professors with a nonattractive control group matched for department and gender.
- Analyzed data from four separate universities.
Main Results:
- Professors perceived as attractive received significantly higher student evaluations.
- Attractive professors scored approximately 0.8 points higher on a 5-point rating scale.
- Benefits of perceived attractiveness were observed for both male and female professors.
Conclusions:
- Perceived physical attractiveness positively influences student evaluations of college professors.
- The findings hold ecological validity due to the use of real-world data.
- This study contributes valuable insights to the understanding of attractiveness bias in academic settings.