The Influence of Student Perceived Professors’ “Hotness” on Expertise, Motivation, Learning Outcomes, and Course Satisfaction

Abstract

Recent research has indicated a noticeable increase in students who rate their professors as either “hot” or “not” on RateMyProfessors.com. The authors further explored this issue by examining the influence of professors’ perceived hotness in the classroom. Results indicate that when professors are perceived to be high in attractiveness, students view these professors as having more expertise. Furthermore, students are more motivated to learn, perceive that they learn better, are more satisfied, and give higher teaching evaluations. Additionally, there appears to be an interaction between the gender of the student and the influence of attractiveness; levels of attractiveness appear to affect female students more than male students.