Die Studierenden bewerten identische Vorlesungen, die auf dem Geschlecht des Professors basieren

Unfortunately there are unconscious biases and nature takes over here. I’d rather have male professors for most classes. I’ve had really good professors who were women but 9/10 men were better at getting you interested, connected, and increased information retention.

Guess what, life is not fair and humans are biased

I wonder how much is speaker cadence as well.

There is an inherent problem in the study. Tha authors state that female lecturers tend to be earlier in their career (less experienced) than males. If the students have noticed this, then their evaluations may be influenced by it.

So apparently they had 95 italian students of philosophy read excerpts from lectures, and then added fake names to the lecture excerpts that were either male or female.

The male students rated the same lecture excerpts better if they were male (but rated the excerts as seeming more „caring“ if the name was female.) The female students were more neutral but wanted to attend the fake professor’s class more if the fake professor was male.

Then they had professional voice actors read the excerpts, and the bias was stronger.

I am open to the idea that this bias generalizes to all students of all lectures. But it would also make sense to me if this effect is more significant in italian students of philosophy specifically.

I have great esteem for philosophy, as an intellectual endeavor. But the specific product of philosophy, as sold to assholes in college courses, seems perfect for gender bias. Absent of any objective mechanism of accountability, this result seems kind of unavoidable.

You asked science if pure, uncut bias was biased and science said „yeah bro.“

The research has two test conditions. One where they read a text claimed to be written by either a male or female name, and another where they heard a text read by, and claimed to be written by, either a typical male or female voice.

> 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.

> 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.