Attractiveness as a biasing factor in the judgments of school psychologists

A sample of 324 practicing school psychologists received a fictitious case study to which was attached a photograph of an attractive boy, an attractive girl, an unattractive boy, or an unattractive girl. Otherwise the case studies were identical. Each psychologist was asked to make several decisions based upon the information provided in the case study. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance indicated that a pupil's attractiveness had a significant effect on the judgments of school psychologists.