Beauty in the classroom: Are female students influenced by the physical appearance of their male professors?

Students were asked to rate the physical attractiveness of fifty five professors and these data were correlated with teaching ratings as collected in the previous semester. Male professors considered more attractive received higher teaching ratings, but only from female students. The more attractive female professors did not receive higher ratings from either male or female students. We conclude that male academics enjoy a "beauty premium," while their female colleagues do not. This "discrimination" stems from the contradiction between role images and gender images. When the role image corresponds to the gender image, the "beauty effect" benefits attractive people. When there is a contradiction between these two images, however, the beautiful person does not enjoy the "beauty premium."