Attractiveness Bias in the Evaluation of Young Pianists' Performances

Abstract

We investigated how the attractiveness bias that influences the judgment of a variety of characteristics and behaviors in infants, children, and adults affects the evaluation of young pianists' performances. The assumption was that both the visual and the audio components of a videotaped musical performance influence the viewers perception of performance quality. We asked children, musicians, and nonmusicians (n = 75) to rate the quality of 10 piano performances from audiotapes (sound only) and from videotapes (sound and image). Additionally, the participants rated the attractiveness of the performers from brief videos of the performers getting ready to play. Results show that evaluations of audiovisual recordings of musical performances are judged more reliably than are audio recordings but also suggest that they may be affected by an attractiveness bias. The bias was found to favor the more attractive pianists among the female performers and among the best players, and the less attractive pianists among the male performers. The decision to use more reliable means of evaluation (videotapes or DVDs) at the expense of favoring a particular group of performers would have to be taken carefully depending on the outcomes of the situation.