Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Psychology, Developmental, Psychology, Social, Women's Studies, Psychology, Sexism, Prejudice, Course evaluation, Teacher effectiveness evaluation, Students' evaluation of teaching, Self-affirmation, FEMALE COLLEGE-TEACHERS, IMPACT, GRADE, OVERCORRECTION, CONSEQUENCES, PSYCHOLOGY, ETHNICITY, PREJUDICE, OPTIMISM, RATINGS, 1117 Public Health and Health Services, 1699 Other Studies in Human Society, 1701 Psychology, Social Psychology, 4405 Gender studies, 5201 Applied and developmental psychology, 5205 Social and personality psychology

Abstract:

Students evaluate male professors higher than female professors. In a study that we presented to participants as a test of a new form for student evaluations of teaching (SETs), we examined if self-affirmation (contemplating elements that positively contribute to one’s self-image) reduced the gender bias. Belgian students (n = 568), who were randomly assigned to self-affirm (through either a value-affirmation task or self-superiority priming) or not, read a vignette prompting them to imagine that they had received a good or a bad grade from a male or a female professor. They evaluated the course, the professor, and the form. Non-self-affirmed participants showed a gender bias after a bad grade, disadvantaging the female professor. Self-affirmation eradicated the gender bias by lowering evaluations for the male professor, suggesting that the gender bias involves overvaluing male rather than derogating female professors. Without self-affirmation, the positivity of the SETs was correlated with participants’ evaluation of the SET form itself. Self-affirmation inflated the correlation for the male professor and eradicated it for the female professor. Having students self-affirm before SETs may be useful when SETs are obligatory only. An even better approach is asking SETs before students learn their grades or simply abolish SETs as a factor in hiring and promotion decisions.