Effects of role model deservingness on overcoming performance deficits induced by stereotype threat

Reading struggle stories of role models can improve the perseverance of undergraduates with low perseverance

Perseverance refers to the ability that individuals show in the process of overcoming failure repeatedly and achieving success. The present study aimed to investigate how many stories about struggling role models undergraduates with a low level of perseverance need to read to effectively improve their perseverance after experiencing failure. Undergraduates with high and low levels of perseverance who had experienced failure were randomly assigned to read 5 struggle stories or 5 achievement stories of role models. They were asked to report their confidence in success, their emotional experience, and their persistent intentions after experiencing failure (i.e., their initial report after reading 0 stories) and then again after reading each story. The results showed that the participants' initially reported level of confidence in success improved after reading 1 struggle story of a role model and further improved after reading 5 struggle stories of role models. Furthermore, the participants' initially reported level of positive emotions increased after reading 1 struggle story or 1 achievement story of a role model, and the positive effects began to level off after reading 4 struggle stories or 4 achievement stories of role models. The participants' initially reported persistent intentions improved after reading 5 struggle stories of role models. These findings reveal that undergraduates can benefit from reading struggle stories of role models regardless of their perseverance levels. Undergraduates' confidence in success and their emotional experience can be improved more quickly than their persistent intentions after experiencing failure.

Female peer mentors early in college have lasting positive impacts on female engineering students that persist beyond graduation

Expanding the talent pipeline of students from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM has been a priority in the United States for decades. However, potential solutions to increase the number of such students in STEM academic pathways, measured using longitudinal randomized controlled trials in real-world contexts, have been limited. Here, we expand on an earlier investigation that reported results from a longitudinal field experiment in which undergraduate female students (N = 150) interested in engineering at college entry were randomly assigned a female peer mentor in engineering, a male peer mentor in engineering, or not assigned a mentor for their first year of college. While an earlier article presented findings from participants' first two years of college, the current article reports the same participants' academic experiences for each year in college through college graduation and one year post-graduation. Compared to the male peer mentor and no mentor condition, having a female peer mentor was associated with a significant improvement in participants' psychological experiences in engineering, aspirations to pursue postgraduate engineering degrees, and emotional well-being. It was also associated with participants' success in securing engineering internships and retention in STEM majors through college graduation. In sum, a low-cost, short peer mentoring intervention demonstrates benefits in promoting female students' success in engineering from college entry, through one-year post-graduation.

Which role models are effective for which students? A systematic review and four recommendations for maximizing the effectiveness of role models in STEM

Is exposing students to role models an effective tool for diversifying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)? So far, the evidence for this claim is mixed. Here, we set out to identify systematic sources of variability in STEM role models' effects on student motivation: If we determine which role models are effective for which students, we will be in a better position to maximize role models' impact as a tool for diversifying STEM. A systematic narrative review of the literature (55 articles) investigated the effects of role models on students' STEM motivation as a function of several key features of the role models (their perceived competence, their perceived similarity to students, and the perceived attainability of their success) and the students (their gender, race/ethnicity, age, and identification with STEM). We conclude with four concrete recommendations for ensuring that STEM role models are motivating for students of all backgrounds and demographics-an important step toward diversifying STEM.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40594-021-00315-x.

Reading Struggle Stories of Role Models Can Improve Students' Growth Mindsets

Previous studies have suggested that reading stories of role models can improve the growth mindsets of students. The current study aimed to investigate the types of stories that can increase the growth mindsets of high school students, undergraduates, and graduates and how many specific stories undergraduates with low and high perseverance need to read to improve their growth mindsets. In study 1, high school students, undergraduates, and graduates were assigned to read either five struggle stories or five achievement stories of role models. Their mindsets were measured before and after reading the stories. The results showed that reading struggle stories rather than achievement stories of role models increased the growth mindsets of undergraduates and graduates. In study 2, undergraduates with high and low perseverance were assigned to read five struggle stories or five achievement stories of role models. Their mindsets were measured before reading stories and after reading each story. The results showed that the growth mindsets of undergraduates with low perseverance increased after reading two struggle stories of role models, and increased further after reading five struggle stories of role models. More importantly, the level of growth mindsets of undergraduates with low perseverance was equal to that of undergraduates with high perseverance after reading five struggle stories of role models. These findings reveal that reading struggle stories of role models can improve the growth mindsets of undergraduates and graduates. The personality of students affects the effectiveness of story-based mindset intervention.

Women Quotas vs. Men Quotas in Academia: Students Perceive Favoring Women as Less Fair Than Favoring Men

In this study, we analyze the free verbal associations to the stimuli women quotas and men quotas of 327 medical students. Women and men quotas are characterized by the same modus operandi (i.e., preferential treatment based on sex/gender). However, women quotas help a low-status group, whereas men quotas help a high-status group. In line with a support paradox, that is, the perception that support for women is less fair and less legitimate than support for men, we expected that students would reject women quotas in academia more vehemently than men quotas. Specifically, we hypothesized that students would have more negative and more emotional associations with women quotas than men quotas. As predicted, students had more negative associations with women quotas than with men quotas. However, students did not have more emotional associations with women quotas than with men quotas. In addition, we explored the semantic content of the free associations to identify specific concerns over each quota. Students perceived women quotas as counterproductive, derogatory, and unfair, whereas they perceived men quotas as beneficial and fair. Concerns over the negative perceptions of quota beneficiaries were associated more frequently with women quotas than men quotas. Potential factors underlying students’ perceptions of both quotas are discussed.

An Examination of Age-Based Stereotype Threat About Cognitive Decline

"Stereotype threat" is often thought of as a singular construct, with moderators and mechanisms that are stable across groups and domains. However, this is not always true. To illustrate this, the current review focuses on the stereotype threat that older adults face about their cognitive abilities. Drawing upon the multithreat framework, I first provide evidence that this is a self-concept threat and not a group-reputation threat. Because this differs from the forms of stereotype threat experienced by other groups (e.g., the threat that minority students face about their intellectual abilities), the moderators of stereotype threat observed in other groups (i.e., group identification) do not always generalize to age-based stereotype threat about cognitive decline. Looking beyond the forms of stereotype threat elicited, this review also provides evidence that the mechanisms underlying stereotype-threat effects may vary across the adult life span. Because of age-related improvements in emotion-regulation abilities, stereotype threat does not seem to reduce older adults' executive-control resources. Overall, this review highlights the need to approach the concept of stereotype threat with more granularity, allowing researchers to design more effective stereotype-threat interventions. It will also shed light on why certain stereotype threat effects "fail to replicate" across domains or groups.

Dismantling Stereotypes About Latinos in STEM

The present study compared the effectiveness of a self-affirmation and a role model guest lecture intervention on reducing students’ perceptions of science-related social identity threat. Participants included 67 Latino high school students enrolled in a college preparation program. Students were randomly assigned either to a self-affirmation intervention or a self-affirmation control task, and the role model intervention was open to all students, with some choosing to participate. Results from an ANCOVA found the combination of both interventions had an identity threat reducing effect of moderate magnitude on perceptions of identity threat, and planned contrasts found statistically significant differences in perceptions of identity threat between students who received both interventions and no intervention, and between students who received both interventions and the self-affirmation task alone. Our research suggests that using multiple and combined interventions might provide an important advantage in order to reduce perceptions of identity threat in Latino students.

Addressing Stereotype Threat is Critical to Diversity and Inclusion in Organizational Psychology

Recently researchers have debated the relevance of stereotype threat to the workplace. Critics have argued that stereotype threat is not relevant in high stakes testing such as in personnel selection. We and others argue that stereotype threat is highly relevant in personnel selection, but our review focused on underexplored areas including effects of stereotype threat beyond test performance and the application of brief, low-cost interventions in the workplace. Relevant to the workplace, stereotype threat can reduce domain identification, job engagement, career aspirations, and receptivity to feedback. Stereotype threat has consequences in other relevant domains including leadership, entrepreneurship, negotiations, and competitiveness. Several institutional and individual level intervention strategies that have been field-tested and are easy to implement show promise for practitioners including: addressing environmental cues, valuing diversity, wise feedback, organizational mindsets, reattribution training, reframing the task, values-affirmation, utility-value, belonging, communal goal affordances, interdependent worldviews, and teaching about stereotype threat. This review integrates criticisms and evidence into one accessible source for practitioners and provides recommendations for implementing effective, low-cost interventions in the workplace.

The Motivational Theory of Role Modeling: How Role Models Influence Role Aspirants’ Goals

Role models are often suggested as a way of motivating individuals to set and achieve ambitious goals, especially for members of stigmatized groups in achievement settings. Yet, the literature on role models tends not to draw on the motivational literature to explain how role models may help role aspirants achieve these outcomes. In this paper, we introduce role aspirants and their motivational processes into an understanding of role modeling by drawing on expectancy–value theories of motivation to bring together the disparate literatures on role models to form a cohesive theoretical framework. We first integrate different definitions of role models into a new conceptualization where we propose that role models serve 3 distinct functions in which they influence goals and motivation: acting as behavioral models, representing the possible, and being inspirational. We then build a theoretical framework for understanding not only when, but also how, role models can effectively influence motivation and goals. This new theoretical framework, the Motivational Theory of Role Modeling, highlights ways in which the power of role models can be harnessed to increase role aspirants’ motivation, reinforce their existing goals, and facilitate their adoption of new goals.

Does stereotype threat influence performance of girls in stereotyped domains? A meta-analysis

Although the effect of stereotype threat concerning women and mathematics has been subject to various systematic reviews, none of them have been performed on the sub-population of children and adolescents. In this meta-analysis we estimated the effects of stereotype threat on performance of girls on math, science and spatial skills (MSSS) tests. Moreover, we studied publication bias and four moderators: test difficulty, presence of boys, gender equality within countries, and the type of control group that was used in the studies. We selected study samples when the study included girls, samples had a mean age below 18years, the design was (quasi-)experimental, the stereotype threat manipulation was administered between-subjects, and the dependent variable was a MSSS test related to a gender stereotype favoring boys. To analyze the 47 effect sizes, we used random effects and mixed effects models. The estimated mean effect size equaled -0.22 and significantly differed from 0. None of the moderator variables was significant; however, there were several signs for the presence of publication bias. We conclude that publication bias might seriously distort the literature on the effects of stereotype threat among schoolgirls. We propose a large replication study to provide a less biased effect size estimate.