The sample size in that physics lecturer study is really to small to conclude much of anything, but I'd definitely seen the same thing within teacher evaluations and ratemyprofessor and things like that. Quite a few comments for male teachers start with something like, "He's a cool guy," while I've almost never seen that for female teachers.

My brain isn't working. What's the name of the effect that observation has on phenomena?

Times like that, I keep reminding myself that living well is the best revenge.

Yeah, pretty much. I am way less worried about my manhood than EEB was.

Seriously: he had a six-cylinder Camaro, and traded it in for an eight-cylinder Camaro because he wanted it to go zoom faster. Wouldn't even fix his elderly golden retriever, because that would be a slight on his own manhood, even after the dog ran off after a bitch in heat and got hit by a car. He was really a prize, and the least likely archaeologist ever.

Tommyrot, those of us who teach noticed that anecdotally years ago. The students perception of your intelligence is inversely related to how high your voice is.

The premise of that study might be depressing, but it seems to have been of a pretty small scope, with only four actors involved.

I love the first comment. Give up right now, ladies:

It is not "inherent biases" that cause students to prefer men speakers over women. Because of the high pitch and the softness of a woman's voice, it makes them very difficult to understand unless they are right up in your face, and the high pitch of a woman's voice makes their lecture seem more like a reprimand. A man's voice has more base in it and their words are clearer and easier to understand. It is not bias, it is the length of the sound wave.

It is not bias, it is the length of the sound wave.

Bias towards low voices isn't bias against women! It's just bias against women's voices. TOTALLY DIFFERENT THING.

"More base"? Really?

::sighs::

What's the name of the effect that observation has on phenomena?

Uh, observer effect?

Tommyrot, those of us who teach noticed that anecdotally years ago. The students perception of your intelligence is inversely related to how high your voice is.

One of my friends from grad school has a really high voice -- like, Minnie Mouse quality -- and it usually took forever for her students to trust that she actually knew what she was talking about. (She usually got assigned to the lower-level classes, though, because she had way more patience for them than the rest of us. She could explain 2+2=4 for an hour, and have a smile on her face the whole time. Nearly all of the rest of us would get too frustrated to continue long before she would.)

I remember (but can't hit the right set of Google terms to call it back up) reading an article by an MTF professor in (memfault) science, who was appalled to overhear remarks in the halls by colleagues gossiping about the new guy and how great his most recent lectures/publications had been, and that he seemed to be a lot smarter than his sister who'd been around the year before.