Attractive female students' grades dropped during remote learning: Study

[marshwiggle]

From this fascinating article:

Female college students who happen to be aesthetically pleasing earned lower grades during the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent study found.

Adrian Mehic, a post-doctoral researcher at Lund University and study author, analyzed the scores of 300 male and female engineering students in Sweden before and after the coronavirus hit.


A panel of more than 70 separate individuals was asked to rate the attractiveness of each student.

Mehic found a significant decline in the average grades of the "attractive" female students, but only in courses where teachers and students were more likely to interact.

The "non-quantitative" courses include business and economics where exams and assignments are graded subjectively.

However, the effect was not found for "quantitative" courses like math and physics.

Here's a link to the original article.

[research_prof]

So now college has become a "d**k measuring" contest? I am at a loss of words. How physical appearance has anything to do with grades and performance?

Am I the only one that gives grades to students based on well-defined and objective performance metrics during the semester without taking into account their physical appearance?

[marshwiggle]

So now college has become a "d**k measuring" contest? I am at a loss of words. How physical appearance has anything to do with grades and performance?

Am I the only one that gives grades to students based on well-defined and objective performance metrics during the semester without taking into account their physical appearance?

I believe it is unconscious bias that is being considered here, where grading is somewhat subjective. The authors never suggest that instructors are knowingly grading attractive people higher on that basis alone.

[Kron3007]

I would be curious to see if this is consistent across male and female professors, as well as with attractive male students.

Really though, this is not a surprise.  Any time an assessment is subjective, there will be a lot of bias in many directions.  This is one reason I have shifted largely to multiple choice and very short answer questions that have clear correct and incorrect answers.  Essay style questions are too subjective, but I understand that this may not be possible in all fields.

[downer]

It's another reason I prefer like online asynchronous teaching. I don't see or hear the students, so less room for bias to creep in.

[marshwiggle]

I would be curious to see if this is consistent across male and female professors, as well as with attractive male students.

The sex of instructors was noted in the data, but it appears they didn't notice any correlation with that.

They didn't see the same correlation with attractive male students.

With all of the covid data from all over the world, I'm guessing this analysis wil be done at tons of other places. That will be interesting to see, especially if some of these other possibilities are investigated.

Really though, this is not a surprise.  Any time an assessment is subjective, there will be a lot of bias in many directions.  This is one reason I have shifted largely to multiple choice and very short answer questions that have clear correct and incorrect answers.  Essay style questions are too subjective, but I understand that this may not be possible in all fields.

That's why I also stopped getting class lists with program designations on them, in case I might be biased in favour of students in my program.

[Sun_Worshiper]

Interesting and, as Kron said, not surprising.

[dismalist]

This struck a distant chord.

Turns out there is a book by Daniel Hamermesh, Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful, PUP 2011, where he finds that good looking people -- both men and women earn more. According to his research, attractive people are likely to earn an average of 3% to 4% more than a person with below-average looks. That adds up to $230,000 more over a lifetime for the typical good-looking person. [WSJ] There are many mechanisms. One is that good looking people tend to get put into public positions -- cashier vs stockroom, which the public appreciates and rewards.

[What else  struck me about the article was that Economics exams were categorized as subjective, at least partly. Must be for the macroeconomics part! :-)]

[Kron3007]

This struck a distant chord.

Turns out there is a book by Daniel Hamermesh, Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful, PUP 2011, where he finds that good looking people -- both men and women earn more. According to his research, attractive people are likely to earn an average of 3% to 4% more than a person with below-average looks. That adds up to $230,000 more over a lifetime for the typical good-looking person. [WSJ] There are many mechanisms. One is that good looking people tend to get put into public positions -- cashier vs stockroom, which the public appreciates and rewards.

[What else  struck me about the article was that Economics exams were categorized as subjective, at least partly. Must be for the macroeconomics part! :-)]

Im sure this also goes well beyond looks.  Obviously this is more difficult to quantify, and impossible based on a picture, but I'm sure more likeable students get higher grades for the same response and earn more during their career a well.

I doubt any of this is really news, or shouldn't be.

[Parasaurolophus]

It's not really that essay assessment is "subjective". It's that people often don't grade these things anonymously. We're all inclined to give the benefit of a doubt to people we like, or who we know work hard, etc. And we're all more likely to be kindly disposed towards people we think are pretty. We're also more likely to recognize them, etc., which impacts "participation" grades.

But yeah, not surprising.

[Kron3007]

It's not really that essay assessment is "subjective". It's that people often don't grade these things anonymously. We're all inclined to give the benefit of a doubt to people we like, or who we know work hard, etc. And we're all more likely to be kindly disposed towards people we think are pretty. We're also more likely to recognize them, etc., which impacts "participation" grades.

But yeah, not surprising.

I think it is quite subjective.  When I am grading essay style questions, I am fairly certain my expectations/standards change as I am grading.  Your grade would most likely be impacted by the sequence in which you were graded.  Obviously I try to avoid this, but this is only one obvious example.  The nature of grading an essay is just not as clean as a multiple choice question where there is a single correct choice, there is too much discretion for it to be completely objective.

[mahagonny]

So now college has become a "d**k measuring" contest? I am at a loss of words. How physical appearance has anything to do with grades and performance?

Am I the only one that gives grades to students based on well-defined and objective performance metrics during the semester without taking into account their physical appearance?

I believe it is unconscious bias that is being considered here, where grading is somewhat subjective. The authors never suggest that instructors are knowingly grading attractive people higher on that basis alone.

The effect of this attractiveness on the prof with the grade book can also be something intended and schemed for, and more efficacious in person.

[Wahoo Redux]

As someone who watches a lot of cerebral documentaries (watching one now), I do think I see a difference in the aesthetic qualities of the experts interviewed re: male vs. female.  One of the profs in my grad program was asked to be the host of one of those Great Courses anthologies.  She was the real deal, of course, but not a superstar.  She was, however, extremely attractive. 

Likewise, take a look at any female news anchor as opposed to the male news anchor.  This is not absolute, of course, but look at Nora O'Donnell and then look at Bill Ritter. 

Incidentally, as my wife was preparing for surgery some years ago the nurses told us, quite unapologetically, that the surgeon was "very good looking" and "looks like Tom Cruise."   

This study is not surprising. 

[Ruralguy]

The one thing I would never care about it what my surgeon *looks like*.
If he plays the scalpel like Coltraine on the sax, then I'm in (well, maybe a bit less *rough* than Coltraine, but you know what I mean). Don't give a darn what they look like.

[dismalist]

The one thing I would never care about it what my surgeon *looks like*.
If he plays the scalpel like Coltraine on the sax, then I'm in (well, maybe a bit less *rough* than Coltraine, but you know what I mean). Don't give a darn what they look like.

\

'Ya know, if we take all this stuff seriously, we would ask for bad looking surgeons! They were ignored or discriminated against in med school, but made it anyway, so they must be better!