Do Pretty Girls Get Better Grades in School?

Do pretty girls really get better grades in school? In real life, the classroom is the last place where you would expect appearance to matter. A fashion runway, maybe, but you would like to think that your teachers see past how individuals look when they grade your papers.

Apparently, they don’t! Well, according to a recent study presented this week at the American Economic Association. It states that attractive women get better grades.

The study explores whether teachers are implicitly biased towards better-looking students. Economists Rey Hernandez-Julian and Christina Peters used a sample of 5,394 students and 103,803 grades to reach their final result. They concluded that yes, physical attractiveness affects grades — at least, for women.

But you are thinking, how could researchers possibly quantify attractiveness? Appearance is totally subjective — each person has his or her own definition of beauty, and what one person finds attractive may not be appealing to someone else.

According to the study, though, economists recruited individuals who were over 18 years of age, who were neither students nor faculty members at MSU-Denver [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Metropolitan State University, where the study took place] in order to rate the images. Before allowing them to rate students’ images, the economists established what each rater’s bias towards beauty and attractiveness was, this was then factored, and subtracted from the ratings they assigned the subjects of the study.

Hernandez-Julian believes that there are a few possibilities for the grade gap. It could be that, teachers invest more time and energy into the better-looking students, helping them learn more and earn the higher grades or they simply reward the appearance with higher grades when these pretty girls perform well.

What’s even more interesting is that it doesn’t matter whether the teacher is male or female, and the gap doesn’t exist for online classes (where teachers cannot see students). However, it’s worth noting that the average age of these students was 30, and MSU-Denver caters to nontraditional students, so it cannot be assumed that the same results are true everywhere.

Well, before you begin to think that pretty Yinka, Chinwe or Memmunat only has all those fantastic A+ grades going for her because of her physical attractiveness!

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