Stereotyping: the effect of author's education on perceived writing ability

Abstract

The current study evaluated educational achievement stereotyping and its presence in reading. Ninety-one undergraduate participants read the same article with varying authors and answered the same questionnaire. There were nine conditions where authors varied by gender (male, female, or anonymous) and education level (high school senior, Ph.D., or anonymous). It was hypothesized that male participants would judge female authors more harshly than males, female participants would judge all authors less harshly than males, and that authors with a Ph.D. would receive higher scores than other authors. Results showed that male participants judged all authors, regardless of gender, more harshly than females. Authors with a Ph.D. received higher scores than high school students, who scored higher than authors without given educational information.