Professor Gender, Age, and “Hotness” in Influencing College Students’ Generation and Interpretation of Professor Ratings

Undergraduate psychology students rated expectations of a bogus professor (randomly designated a man or woman and hot versus not hot) based on an online rating and sample comments as found on RateMyProfessors.com (RMP). Five professor qualities were derived using principal components analysis (PCA):...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Higher learning research communications 2016-09, Vol.6 (3), p.3
Main Authors: Sohr-Preston, Sara L., Boswell, Stefanie S., McCaleb, Kayla, Robertson, Deanna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Bias
College Faculty
College Students
Colleges & universities
Componential Analysis
Course Selection (Students)
Decision making
Educational Quality
Factor Analysis
Higher Education
Hypothesis Testing
Interpersonal Attraction
Interpersonal Relationship
Multivariate Analysis
professor ratings
Psychology
psychology faculty
Quality Control
Questionnaires
Rating Scales
Resistance (Psychology)
Science Curriculum
Scores
Sex
Statistical Analysis
Statistical Significance
Student Attitudes
Student Evaluation of Teacher Performance
Teacher Characteristics
Teacher Effectiveness
Teacher evaluations
teaching
Undergraduate Students
Validity
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Summary:Undergraduate psychology students rated expectations of a bogus professor (randomly designated a man or woman and hot versus not hot) based on an online rating and sample comments as found on RateMyProfessors.com (RMP). Five professor qualities were derived using principal components analysis (PCA): dedication, attractiveness, enhancement, fairness, and clarity. Participants rated current psychology professors on the same qualities. Current professors were divided based on gender (man or woman), age (under 35 or 35 and older), and attractiveness (at or below the median or above the median). Using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), students expected hot professors to be more attractive but lower in clarity. They rated current professors as lowest in clarity when a man and 35 or older. Current professors were rated significantly lower in dedication, enhancement, fairness, and clarity when rated at or below the median on attractiveness. Results, with previous research, suggest numerous factors, largely out of professors’ control, influencing how students interpret and create professor ratings. Caution is therefore warranted in using online ratings to select courses or make hiring and promotion decisions. 
ISSN:2157-6254
2157-6254
DOI:10.18870/hlrc.v6i3.328