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What's in an author's name? Differential evaluations of performance as a function of author's name

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Abstract

Three hundred college students (150 female, 150 male) were asked to evaluate an academic article in the field of politics, psychology of women, or education (judged masculine, feminine, and neutral, respectively) that was written by either a male, a female, or an author with a sexually ambiguous name. The results indicated that ratings of the articles were differentially perceived and evaluated according to the name of the author. An article written by a male was valued more positively than if the author was not male. Furthermore, subjects' bias against women was stronger when they believed that sexually neutral authors were female.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Kent State University, 44242, Kent, Ohio

    Michele A. Paludi & Lisa A. Strayer

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  1. Michele A. Paludi
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  2. Lisa A. Strayer
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We thank Brad Waite for his help in data collection.

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Paludi, M.A., Strayer, L.A. What's in an author's name? Differential evaluations of performance as a function of author's name. Sex Roles 12, 353–361 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287601

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287601

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