LAS Sociology Professor Rachel Gordon Quoted in NPR Article
Rachel A. Gordon, LAS professor in the Department of Sociology, Faculty Fellow of the Honors College, and a member of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs (IGPA) at UIC, was quoted in a January 14, 2016 NPR article entitled “Pretty Girls Make (Higher) Grades.” The article discusses new research finding that women who are ranked as being physically attractive by a group of outside observers receive significantly higher grades, especially from male professors, and how this effect then disappears in appearance-anonymous online courses.
Professor Gordon is presented as an example of an academic who had performed a similar study with similar findings:
“ Rachel Gordon, a professor of sociology and public policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has published papers with similar conclusions to this latest one — although her work has shown that better-looking men, as well as women, also receive a grade premium. That wasn't the case in the Denver study.
Gordon calls this idea of comparing the same students' performance in both online and in-person courses an ‘interesting and clever design.’ ”
To read the full article, visit the NPR website here.