Impacts of autistic traits on student evaluations of professors

Author

Matias SolorzanoFollow

Graduation Date

Summer 2025

Document Type

Thesis

Program

Master of Arts degree with a major in Psychology, option Academic Research

Committee Chair Name

Dr. Kauyumari Sanchez

Committee Chair Affiliation

Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff

Second Committee Member Name

Dr. Amber Gaffney

Second Committee Member Affiliation

Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff

Third Committee Member Name

Dr. Brandilynn Villarreal

Third Committee Member Affiliation

Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff

Keywords

Autistic instructors, Student evaluations of teaching

Subject Categories

Psychology

Abstract

Instructor evaluations are critical to the tenure process in academia, but are biased against autistic individuals in academic settings. This study addresses how instructor evaluations are impacted by the gender of the professor, whether the instructor discloses their autism identity, and the gender of the student evaluator in a 2 Professor Gender (Male or Female) x 2 Autism Identity (Disclosed v. Not Disclosed) x 2 Student Gender (Male or Female) between-subjects design. It was hypothesized that male professors will be rated higher than female professors, that disclosing one’s autism identity leads to higher evaluations than non disclosure, and that female students will rate instructors higher than male students. Ninety-six participants were randomly assigned to a vignette where the (male or female) professor did or did not disclose their autistic identity and subsequently made an evaluation of the professor. Due to insufficient male participants analyses were conducted without the student gender variable. Due to low participation overall in this study, the results of this study should not be taken as valid, though a significant main effect for autism disclosure was observed, where participants rated professors more favorably when disclosing their autism identity. This study speculates on the impact of disclosing one’s autism identity within the literature concerning expectancy effects and the stereotype content model.

Citation Style

APA

Recommended Citation

Solorzano, Matias, "Impacts of autistic traits on student evaluations of professors" (2025). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 2329.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/2329