Exploring racial disparities in warmth and competency judgments of faculty among hospitality students

Underrepresented minority (U.M.) faculty encounter distinct challenges within higher education due to race, gender, and ethnicity. This study investigates the joint effects of race and accent on hospitality students’ perceptions of faculty warmth and competence, and overall job performance, using the stereotype content model (SCM). A 2 × 2 experimental design reveals that White faculty are perceived as warmer and more competent than Black faculty when no accent is present. However, accents reduce these racial disparities, suggesting that accents may serve as a social cue that overrides racial stereotypes. Perceived warmth and competence mediate the relationship between the interaction of race, accent, and overall job performance. This study theoretically contributes to the hospitality literature by applying SCM to the context of hospitality education and offers practical implications for addressing race/accent as implicit biases in student evaluations.