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Scott Jaschik writes at Inside Higher Education that although most faculty members would deny that physical appearance is a legitimate criterion in grading, a study finds that among similarly qualified female students, those who are physically attractive earn better grades than less attractive female students. For male students, there is no significant relationship between attractiveness and grades. The results hold true whether the faculty member is a man or a woman.
The researchers obtained student identification photographs for students at Metropolitan State University of Denver and had the attractiveness rated, on a scale of 1-10, of all the students. Then they examined 168,092 course grades awarded to the students, using factors such as ACT scores to control for student academic ability. For female students, an increase of one standard deviation in attractiveness was associated with a 0.024 increase in grade (on a 4.0 scale).
The results mirror a similar study that found that those who are attractive in high school are more likely to go on to earn a four-year college degree. Hernández-Julián says that he found the results of the Metro State study “troubling” and says that there are two possible explanations: “Is it that professors invest more time and energy into the better-looking students, helping them learn more and earn the higher grades? Or do professors simply reward the appearance with higher grades given identical performance? The likely answer, given our growing understanding of the prevalence of implicit biases, is that professors make small adjustments on both of these margins."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by arcz on Thursday January 07 2016, @04:29PM
What if this is becuase some attractive females get help from smart males? The study shows discrepancies between the grades of attractive women in terms of ACT vs actual grades. But it doesn't show that any bias exists on the teachers part. During a test the attractive female would be unablw to recruit intelligent males to assist her, so naturally her grades would be somewhat lower. If only 1 in 5 attractive females did this, it might bump up her average score quite a bit.. We need a study that compares neutrally rated assignments to professor graded ones to see if there is a bias at the teacher level. ACT scores are not a valid control.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2016, @06:29PM
I think you nailed it. Hot chicks have free horny nerd tutors in every course.