Flirting between college students and faculty

Abstract

Recently the question of sexual interaction between students and educators has emerged as a significant social issue. In order to determine the purpose and consequences of one form of sexual interaction between students and faculty, namely, flirting, a questionnaire was mailed to 391 students attending a private college in the midwest. This questionnaire asked subjects a number of fixed‐choice questions regarding their personal characteristics, their conception of what constituted flirting between faculty and students, their perception of the frequency and consequences of such flirting, and their own flirting experiences with faculty. Of the 184 respondents (59.8% female and 41.2% male), over one‐third of both sexes reported flirting with their instructors, while 46% of females and 32% of males felt that instructors had flirted with them. Nearly three‐quarters of the subjects believed that flirting could raise a female student's grade. About one‐half of the subjects believed flirting could raise a male student's grade as well. Less than 25% of the subjects however, indicated that flirting might lower a student's grade. Despite these findings, only 8% of the subjects reported that their grades had been changed as a result of flirting, and only 4.4% considered flirting to be a serious problem on campus. These findings are discussed in terms of sex differences in the perception and consequences of flirting, sex role expectations, the students' use of flirting as an effective grade strategy, and possible sexual harassment of students by their instructors.