BEAUTY AND TEACHING EVALUATION: A COMPARISON BETWEEN FEMALE AND MALE COLLEGE PROFESSORS

Two studies were conducted in order to examine the impact of beauty on teaching ratings. The purpose of the first study was to compare this impact between women and men. The physical attractiveness of fifty-five instructors was rated by their students and correlated with their teaching ratings that had been collected in the previous semester. More attractive male instructors received higher ratings, but only from female students. The more attractive female instructors did not receive better ratings from male or female students. We conclude that male instructors benefit from a 'beauty premium', while female instructors do not. The purpose of the second study was to confirm this conclusion by examining the 'beauty premium' in an occupation characterized by the fit between role image and gender image. The physical attractiveness of 31 female administrative employees was rated and then correlated with their service evaluation. The more attractive clerks received higher ratings, but only from male raters. We conclude that the gender-based differential in the evaluation bias was caused by a lack of fit between role images and gender images. When the role image corresponds to the gender image, as in the case of male instructors and female administrative employees, the 'beauty effect' benefits beautiful employees. Our findings have implications for the improvement of teaching evaluation tools and taking physical appearance bias into consideration.