First Name:
Elizabeth
Last Name:
Dunton
Major Department:
Psychology
Thesis Director:
Rose Mary Webb
Date of Thesis:
May 2013
We make judgments about others in a variety of contexts, and frequently these judgments are based on small samples of behavioral or descriptive information. These quickly-formed perceptions persist over extended periods of time. For example, student evaluations of teaching performance after a full semester of contact are correlated with evaluations based on only seconds of observation. This study was designed to systematically analyze how evaluations of competence, warmth, and other aspects of personality are formed (i.e., what information people consider and how they use that information).
Participants were given a mock transcript of the professor’s introduction to the class. After reading the transcript, students then answered questions measuring their perceptions of the professor’s competence, warmth, and general professor evaluations. In the transcript, gender, years of experience, and contact availability were manipulated.
Our results did not show any significant differences in measurements of competence. However, professors who provide cell phone numbers were judged as warmer and given better overall evaluations. We also found interactions between gender and contact availability as they affect judgments of warmth and overall evaluations.
Understanding the processes underlying how personality and competence inferences are made can inform the both the science and application of discrimination and stereotyping in professional and personal aspects of life.
Keywords: Professors, Gender, Experience, Availability