Hot or not: do professors perceived as physically attractive receive higher student evaluations?

Previous research investigating the influence of perceived physical attractiveness on student evaluations of college professors has been limited to a handful of studies. In this study, the authors used naturally occurring data obtained from the publicly available Web site www.ratemyprofessors.com. The data suggested that professors perceived as attractive received higher student evaluations when compared with those of a nonattractive control group (matched for department and gender). Results were consistent across 4 separate universities. Professors perceived as attractive received student evaluations about 0.8 of a point higher on a 5-point scale. Exploratory analyses indicated benefits of perceived attractiveness for both male and female professors. Although this study has all the limitations of naturalistic research, it adds a study with ecological validity to the limited literature.     

Students’ stereotypes of professors: an exploration of the double violations of ethnicity and gender

This study examined students’ stereotypes of professors based on professor ethnicity, gender, teaching style, and course taught. An ethnically diverse sample of undergraduates (N = 594) rated hypothetical professors on several dimensions including perceived warmth, professional competence, and difficulty. Evidence consistent with response amplification and expectancy violation theories was found. Women professors were viewed as more warm than men professors even though their course syllabuses were identical. Students’ ratings of women and Latina/os were, in some cases, based on their teaching style and the courses they taught, whereas ratings of Anglo men were not. Implications for women and Latina/os in the academy are discussed.     

Are professors likely to report having “beliefs” about the intelligence and competence of students who stutter?

Some university students who stutter report that they avoid participating in class discussions and talking with professors because they believe that if their professors find out they stutter, the professors are likely to view the students as being less intelligent and/or competent than they otherwise would. The purpose of this study was to determine whether professors, as a group, are likely to report such beliefs. A random sample of 87 professors at Marquette University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and the State University of New York at Stonybrook rated “A Student Who Stutters” on each of 81 seven-point, bipolar semantic differential scales, including intelligent/unintelligent and competent/incompetent. Although there was considerable scatter in their ratings for the majority of the scales, 85 of the 87 rated the student at the center or “positive” end of the intelligent/unintelligent scale and 83 of the 87 did so on the competent/incompetent one. Assuming that the attitutes reported by the professors reflect their “real” ones, these data suggest that many—perhaps the majority—do not have negative attitudes about the intelligence and competence of their students who stutter.