Students are more motivated to do their homework when they see their teacher as attractive and well-dressed, according to a recent study.
- Students are more open to participating in school activities and doing homework when they find their teacher attractive.
- The study shows that the dress code of the teachers plays an important role in the perception of the students.
- However, further work is needed to understand this phenomenon.
It must be recognized… beauty can make everyday life easier. Studies have, for example, shown that people considered to be physically attractive, are perceived as more competent. And this phenomenon is visible even in classrooms since a study published in Frontiers in Psychology reveals that students are more motivated to do their homework if they find their teacher attractive well dressed.
Teachers: formal outfits judged more positively by students
Researchers from the University of Suceava (Romania) behind this work, recruited 173 students aged 9 to 14 years. A group saw the photo of a teacher deemed attractive (according to an evaluation carried out during a pilot study, Editor’s note) while the other group had a photo of a less well-dressed female teacher. In reality, there was the same 24-year-old woman, wearing different clothes, in the pictures.
“Although the aim of the pilot study was not to classify teachers’ attire into two categories, based on the indicators of attire, it can easily be concluded that the attractive photo represents formal professional attire, while the unattractive is closer to the casual style”explain the authors of the scientific article.
The children then had to listen to a six-minute audio recording. They were told it was the woman in the photo. The participants’ perception of the speaker’s personality was assessed via questionnaires. The results showed significant differences in the children’s view of the teacher’s personality, the quality of teaching, the expected grades, their openness to school activities according to their perception of the clothing attractiveness of the school. teacher.
THE more attentive students with a teacher deemed attractive
In detail, students were willing to do homework or extra work, listen more carefully in class, and stay After school when they perceived their teacher as attractive. In addition, the teacher who was judged to be “attractive” and “well dressed” was more likely to be seen as having a positive personality and a good teacher.
For scientists, it could be interesting to set up dress codes for teachers, because there seems to be a positive effect on the students. However, they acknowledge that further research is needed to understand the mechanisms by which teachers’ attire influences children.
