Article Students rate identical lectures differently based on professor’s gender, researchers find
Article Students rate identical lectures differently based on professor’s gender, researchers find
Sep 10 2025, 6:15 PM
https://www.psypost.org/students-rate-identical-lectures-differently-based-on-professors-gender-researchers-find/
Quote:The research team conducted two separate experiments. In both studies, participants were philosophy students or recent graduates from Italian universities. The students were asked to evaluate short lecture excerpts that were identical in content but varied in the gender of the professor attributed to them.
In the first study, 95 participants read four lecture excerpts on philosophical topics, including Aristotle’s ethics and Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic power. Each excerpt was randomly assigned a fictitious male or female name. After reading each passage, participants answered questions about the clarity, interest, perceived competence, self-confidence, care, and overall engagement they felt toward the lecturer. These evaluations mirrored the types of items typically found in real-world student evaluations.
The second study involved 92 participants and used the same lecture excerpts, but this time delivered as audio recordings by voice actors selected to represent typical male and female vocal characteristics. Again, participants evaluated each lecture on the same seven dimensions and completed an additional questionnaire measuring their beliefs about gender roles.
By manipulating only the apparent gender of the professor—either via a name or a voice—the researchers aimed to isolate the effects of gender bias on teaching evaluations.
In the first study, male participants consistently rated lectures more favorably when they were attributed to a man. This was true across several key dimensions, including clarity, interest, competence, self-confidence, and perceived benefit. Men also showed a greater willingness to take a full course with a male professor. The only area where they rated women higher was in perceived care, consistent with stereotypes that associate women with nurturing roles.
In contrast, women participants in the first study showed little bias in their evaluations, except when it came to engagement. Like men, they expressed a greater willingness to enroll in a full course when the professor was male. The researchers suggest this may reflect the influence of deeper, possibly unconscious biases that persist even when women consciously attempt to judge content fairly.
Quote:The second study, which used spoken rather than written lectures, found even broader evidence of gender bias. In this version, both male and female participants rated male professors higher across nearly all dimensions, including clarity, interest, competence, and self-confidence. Women were still rated more highly on care. This pattern held even for participants who reported egalitarian views about gender roles.
“In our second study, where the gender of the professors was made more salient through the use of audio recordings, women participants displayed the same gender biases as men participants,” Campeggiani said.
The second study also found that students’ explicit beliefs about gender equality, as measured by a standardized questionnaire, were not strongly related to their actual evaluations. Even students with progressive attitudes tended to favor male professors. This suggests that implicit biases can operate independently of a person’s stated values and may remain influential even when individuals consciously reject traditional gender norms.
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PsyPost, September 10 2025
https://www.psypost.org/students-rate-identical-lectures-differently-based-on-professors-gender-researchers-find/
Quote:The research team conducted two separate experiments. In both studies, participants were philosophy students or recent graduates from Italian universities. The students were asked to evaluate short lecture excerpts that were identical in content but varied in the gender of the professor attributed to them.
In the first study, 95 participants read four lecture excerpts on philosophical topics, including Aristotle’s ethics and Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic power. Each excerpt was randomly assigned a fictitious male or female name. After reading each passage, participants answered questions about the clarity, interest, perceived competence, self-confidence, care, and overall engagement they felt toward the lecturer. These evaluations mirrored the types of items typically found in real-world student evaluations.
The second study involved 92 participants and used the same lecture excerpts, but this time delivered as audio recordings by voice actors selected to represent typical male and female vocal characteristics. Again, participants evaluated each lecture on the same seven dimensions and completed an additional questionnaire measuring their beliefs about gender roles.
By manipulating only the apparent gender of the professor—either via a name or a voice—the researchers aimed to isolate the effects of gender bias on teaching evaluations.
In the first study, male participants consistently rated lectures more favorably when they were attributed to a man. This was true across several key dimensions, including clarity, interest, competence, self-confidence, and perceived benefit. Men also showed a greater willingness to take a full course with a male professor. The only area where they rated women higher was in perceived care, consistent with stereotypes that associate women with nurturing roles.
In contrast, women participants in the first study showed little bias in their evaluations, except when it came to engagement. Like men, they expressed a greater willingness to enroll in a full course when the professor was male. The researchers suggest this may reflect the influence of deeper, possibly unconscious biases that persist even when women consciously attempt to judge content fairly.
Quote:The second study, which used spoken rather than written lectures, found even broader evidence of gender bias. In this version, both male and female participants rated male professors higher across nearly all dimensions, including clarity, interest, competence, and self-confidence. Women were still rated more highly on care. This pattern held even for participants who reported egalitarian views about gender roles.
“In our second study, where the gender of the professors was made more salient through the use of audio recordings, women participants displayed the same gender biases as men participants,” Campeggiani said.
The second study also found that students’ explicit beliefs about gender equality, as measured by a standardized questionnaire, were not strongly related to their actual evaluations. Even students with progressive attitudes tended to favor male professors. This suggests that implicit biases can operate independently of a person’s stated values and may remain influential even when individuals consciously reject traditional gender norms.
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