Does facial structure explain differences in student evaluations of teaching? The role of fWHR as a proxy for perceived dominance

Dominance is usually viewed as a positive male attribute, but this is not typically the case for women. Using a novel dataset of student evaluations of teaching in a school of Business and Economics of a selective university, we construct the face width-to-height ratio (fWHR) as a proxy for perceived dominance to assess whether individuals with a higher ratio obtain better evaluations. Our results show that a higher fWHR is associated with a better evaluation for male faculty, while the opposite is the case for female faculty. These results are not due to differences in teachers’ quality or beauty. In terms of magnitude, the effect of the fWHR is much larger for female professors. To the extent that fWHR is a good proxy of perceived dominance, it appears that conformity to traditional gender norms pays off for both men and women. However, the cost of challenging these norms is much larger for women than for men. •We use the facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) as a proxy of perceived dominance.•We study the effect of the fWHR on student evaluations of teaching (SET).•A higher fWHR is associated with a higher SET for men with opposite effect for women.•The effect of the fWHR is robust to the inclusion of an attractiveness score.•The negative effect of fWHR for women is stronger after controlling for quality.