Implicit Bias and Stereotype Threat
Why care about what philosophers look like? Well, there’s a lot of evidence that stereotypes - including stereotypes about image - can have a massive effect both on individual performance and on how we judge individual performance.
People can be judged as “less good” at philosophy because they don’t fit someone’s stereotypical image of a philosopher. And people can question their own ability to do philosophy - and sometimes even avoid philosophy entirely - because they think they “aren’t really the type”.
To learn more about implicit bias and stereotype threat, check out a few of these resources:
Feminist Philosophers - The Psychology of Philosophy
