Stereotypes of pilots and apprehension about flying with them: a study of commercial aviation scenarios.
This study explored the effects of gender, experience, and performance of a commercial aviation pilot on concern of passengers about flying with him or her. It used scenarios that represented two aspects of pilot behavior: skill and judgment. We cast 112 adult subjects in the role of passengers. They read vignettes that described their captain and the flight in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design (male or female, newly promoted or veteran captain, strong or weak performance). Results showed that of the three manipulated variables, only pilot performance had a statistically significant main effect upon apprehension about making a continuation flight with the pilot (F = 41.52; p less than or equal to 0.001 for the skill scenario and F = 41.73; p less than or equal to 0.001 for the judgment scenario). Statistical interactions showed that the level of passenger concern was not based entirely on pilot performance. For instance, on the skill scenario, when a female pilot performed well, her rating was higher than that of an equally performing male, but when she performed poorly, her rating was lower than his (F = 5.38; p less than or equal to 0.02).
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
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Dukes
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Hulbert-Johnson
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Newton
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Overstreet
D000328:Adult; D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety; D004650:Employee Performance Appraisal / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013240:Stereotyping; D000078329:Workforce