Fitted: the impact of academics' attire on students' evaluations and intentions
Date
2021
Authors
Oliver, Sebastian
Marder, Ben
Erz, Antonia
Kietzmann, Jan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education
Abstract
Dressing formally or informally as an academic may be a trade-off when
it comes to managing impressions towards students, but the extant body
of literature remains limited with only mixed results. This research is the
first focussed investigation to examine the effects of academic dress
formality on the ‘big two’ of impression formation, perceptions of warmth
and competence. In a series of three controlled laboratory experiments
(total N = 1361), we find dress formality to increase perceptions of competence
but to decrease perceptions of warmth, which leads to ‘downstream’
effects on students’ evaluations of instructors and behavioural
intentions to enrol in a course. Furthermore, we demonstrate that perceptions
of competence may be subject to other information cues (success
communication and discipline norms) that can mitigate negative
effects associated with dress informality. Implications for higher education
practitioners are provided.
Description
Keywords
impression management, dress formality, instructor evaluations
Citation
Oliver, S., Marder, B., Erz, A., & Kietzmann, J. (2021). Fitted: The impact of academics’ attire on students’ evaluations and intentions. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2021.1921105