Attractiveness Bias in the Evaluation of Young Pianists' Performances

Abstract

We investigated how the attractiveness bias that influences the judgment of a variety of characteristics and behaviors in infants, children, and adults affects the evaluation of young pianists' performances. The assumption was that both the visual and the audio components of a videotaped musical performance influence the viewers perception of performance quality. We asked children, musicians, and nonmusicians (n = 75) to rate the quality of 10 piano performances from audiotapes (sound only) and from videotapes (sound and image). Additionally, the participants rated the attractiveness of the performers from brief videos of the performers getting ready to play. Results show that evaluations of audiovisual recordings of musical performances are judged more reliably than are audio recordings but also suggest that they may be affected by an attractiveness bias. The bias was found to favor the more attractive pianists among the female performers and among the best players, and the less attractive pianists among the male performers. The decision to use more reliable means of evaluation (videotapes or DVDs) at the expense of favoring a particular group of performers would have to be taken carefully depending on the outcomes of the situation.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adams, G. , & Cohen A. (1976). An examination of cumulative information used by teachers in making differential judgments of children's abilities. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 22, 216–225.

Adams, G. , & Huston, T. (1975). Social perceptions of the middle-aged varying in physical attractiveness. Developmental Psychology, 11, 657–658.

Bergee, M. (1997). Relationships among faculty, peer, and self-evaluations of applied performances. Journal of Research in Music Education, 45, 601–612.

Bergee, M. (2003). Faculty interjudge reliability of music performance evaluation. Journal of Research in Music Education, 51, 137–150.

Berscheid, E. , Dion, K. , Walster, E. , & Walster, G. W. (1971). Physical attractiveness and dating choice: A test of the matching hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7, 173–189.

Cash, T. , Gillen, B. , & Burns, D. (1977). Sexism and beautyism in personnel consultant decision making. Journal of Applied Psychology, 62, 301–310.

Davidson, J. W. (1991). The expressive movements of musical performance. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, City University, London.

Davidson, J. W. (1993). Visual perception of performance manner in the movements of solo musicians. Psychology of Music, 21, 103–113.

De Meis, D. , & Turner, R. (1978). Effects of students' race, physical attractiveness, and dialect on teachers' evaluations. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 3, 77–86.

10.

Dion, K. , Berscheid, E , & Walster, E. (1972). What is beautiful is good. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 24, 285–290.

11.

Graham, J. (2000). Interaction effects: Their nature and some post hoc exploration strategies. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southwest Educational Research Association, Dallas, TX.

12.

Harwell, M. (1998). Misinterpreting interaction effects in analysis of variance. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 31, 125–136.

13.

Landy, D. , & Sigall, H. (1974). Beauty is talent: Task evaluations as a function of the performer's physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29, 299–304.

14.

Lehmann, A. C. , & Davidson, J. W. (2002). Taking an acquired skills perspective on music performance. In R. Colwell & C. Richardson (Eds.), The new handbook of research on music teaching and learning. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univeristy Press.

15.

Lerner, R. , & Lerner, J. (1977). Effects of age, sex, and physical attractiveness on child-peer relations, academic performance, and elementary school adjustment. Developmental Psychology, 13, 585–590.

16.

Ross, M. , & Salvia, J. (1975). Attractiveness as a biasing factor in teacher judgements. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 80, 96–98.

17.

Salvia, J. , Algozzine, R. , & Sheare, J. (1977). Attractiveness and school achievement. Journal of School Psychology, 15, 60–67.

18.

Stephan, C. , & Langlois, J. (1984). Baby beautiful: Adult attributions of infant competence as a function of infant attractiveness. Child Development, 55, 576–585.

19.

Thompson, S. , & Williamon, A. (2003). Evaluating evaluation: Musical performance assessment as a research tool. Music Perception, 21, 21–41.

20.

Wapnick, J. , Darrow, A. A. , Kovacs, J. , & Dalrymple, L. (1997). Effects of physical attractiveness on evaluation of vocal performance. Journal of Research in Music Education, 45, 470–479.

21.

Wapnick, J. , Mazza, J. , & Darrow, A. A. (1998). Effects of performer attractiveness, stage behavior, and dress on violin performance evaluation. Journal of Research in Music Education, 46, 510–521.

22.

Wapnick, J. , Mazza, J. , & Darrow, A. A. (2000). Effects of performer attractiveness, stage behavior, and dress on evaluation of children's piano performances. Journal of Research in Music Education, 48, 323–336.