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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, Interesting) by Aichon on Thursday January 07 2016, @04:33PM
Indeed, this was my first thought as well. Theoretically, confidence would already be factored in when controlling for academic skill at the time that the students entered college. Of course, as students go through college, most of them develop greater confidence as they become more sure of their capabilities. If attractive students develop their confidence at a different rate than less attractive students, it's entirely possible that that difference would be reflected in their grades, even if there was no bias at play.
When I was in grad school, my TAing duties meant that I was responsible for everything from writing exams to grading essays to managing labs full of dozens of students to lecturing 125 undergraduates when the professor was out unexpectedly. Most of the professors I worked with would intentionally cover the names of students on the front of exam packets or essays until after they were done grading, just so that they wouldn't let any unintentional biases enter the equation. Really, the only way I would have been able to have given special attention to a more attractive student would have been during lab sessions and the like, where I could have given them extra attention that may have helped them excel. I do recall a particularly attractive student in one of my labs one semester, but, if anything, her attractiveness worked against her, since I made a conscious effort to not spend even a minute longer with her than I did with anyone else, simply out of concern that there might be the appearance of impropriety. I wanted everything I did to be on the up-and-up, so if there was ever a possibility that anything could reflect poorly on me or my department, I avoided it (e.g. I once foolishly scheduled 14 help sessions in a row (the students were just learning about pointers in C++, so they needed extra help), each one an hour long, with no break for food; by midday, a few kindly students were offering to grab lunch for me since I had been a big help to them, which would have been permitted according to the university's code of ethics, but I passed on it simply because I wanted to avoid even a hint of impropriety).
(Score: 1) by andersjm on Thursday January 07 2016, @05:08PM
I think you overlooked this part. Increased confidence would affect the controls as well.
I wouldn't be surprised if attractive students also, as you suggest, are performing objectively better, but that's a separate issue.
(Score: 2) by Aichon on Thursday January 07 2016, @05:21PM
I didn't miss that. My second sentence addressed it explicitly. My suggestion was that the researchers are assuming external factors must be at play, when the reality of the situation is that it could be due to objective differences in the performance of students that result from internal factors changing at different rates for more attractive students as opposed to less attractive students. Without controlling for such factors over time (or administering some sort of objective test at the end of their time in school), rather than merely taking them implicitly into account at the time that the students entered college, it's difficult to say how much of the observed difference in grades is due to external bias on the part of others as opposed to objective differences in the ability of more attractive vs. less attractive students. As a result, the fact that the researchers are jumping to conclusions is a bit disheartening.