Children as young as age 6 develop ideas that girls are less interested than boys in computer science and engineering — stereotypes that can extend into the late teens and contribute to a gender gap in STEM college courses and related careers.

from the University of Houston and the 91̽��, published Nov. 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, explores the gender-based beliefs young children and teens hold about interest in STEM fields. The majority of children believe girls are less interested than boys in computer science and engineering, the study shows.

“Gender-interest stereotypes that STEM is for boys begins in grade school, and by the time they reach high school, many girls have made their decision not to pursue degrees in computer science and engineering because they feel they don’t belong,” said , an assistant professor of Psychological, Health and Learning Sciences at the University of Houston and the study’s lead author.

The PNAS study involved four different studies — a mix of surveys and designed experiments to capture the beliefs of a racially diverse sample of children and teens in grades 1 through 12. Researchers wanted to focus on interest, building on , to learn how gender-based stereotypes about who likes — not just who is “good” at — computer science and engineering can affect a child’s sense of belonging and willingness to participate. Such information can influence a young person’s motivation over the long term, researchers point out, and may deter them from trying an activity or taking a class.

As recently as 2019, national statistics reveal that women are underrepresented in some popular and lucrative STEM careers: statistics show that only about 25% of computer scientists and 15% of engineers were women.

In the first two studies, researchers surveyed more than 2,200 children and teens to gauge beliefs about computer science and engineering. The surveys used terms and phrases with which the students were familiar at school, such as “computer coding” for computer science or, for engineering, “designing and creating large structures such as roads and bridges.”

Researchers found that just over half (51%) of children believed girls are less interested than boys in computer science, and nearly two-thirds (63%) said girls are less interested in engineering. In comparison, 14% of children said girls are more interested than boys in computer science, and 9% said girls are more interested in engineering.

Subsequent lab studies provided a smaller sample of children two different activities from which to choose. The results demonstrated that girls were significantly less interested in a computer science activity when they were told boys were more interested in it than girls (35% of girls chose the activity), compared to one they were told boys and girls were equally interested in (65% of girls chose that activity).

While the surveys showed the pervasiveness of gender-based stereotypes around interest in computer science and engineering, the designed experiments demonstrated how stereotypes can affect a sense of belonging, which can influence motivation, co-author said.

“The large surveys told us that the kids had absorbed the cultural stereotype that girls are less interested in computer science and engineering. In the experiments we zeroed in on causal mechanisms and consequences of stereotypes,” said Meltzoff, a professor of psychology at the 91̽��and co-director of the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. “We discovered that labeling an activity in a stereotyped way influenced children’s interest in it and their willingness to take it home—the mere presence of the stereotype influenced kids in dramatic ways. This brought home to us the pernicious effect of stereotypes on children and teens”

And that’s important, added co-author , a 91̽��professor of psychology, because if fewer girls feel they belong, then fewer might pursue computer science or engineering through school and beyond. That can lead to gender disparities in STEM fields and even worsen the wage gap.

”Current gender disparities in computer science and engineering careers are troubling because these careers are lucrative, high status, and influence so many aspects of our daily lives.

The dearth of gender and racial diversity in these fields may be one of the reasons why many products and services have had negative consequences for women and people of color,” Cheryan said.

Teachers and parents can help counteract stereotypes by offering high-quality computer science and engineering activities early in elementary school — and encouraging girls’ participation, the authors note.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education, and the Bezos Family Foundation.

For more information, contact Meltzoff at meltzoff@uw.edu, Cheryan at scheryan@uw.edu, or Master at amaster@central.uh.edu.

This release includes material from S. Sara Tubbs at the University of Houston.

Twenty scientists and engineers at the 91̽�� are among the 38 new members elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for 2021, according to a July 15 . New members were chosen for “their outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the Academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.”

Current academy members selected 29 of the new members. An additional nine were elected by virtue of joining one of the National Academies.

New 91̽��members who were elected by current academy members are:

• , professor and Port of Tacoma Chair in Environmental Science at 91̽��Tacoma, director of the and science director of the , “for foundational work on the environmental fate, behavior and toxicity of PCBs.”
• , professor of psychology, “for contributions in research on racial and gender inequality that has influenced practices in education, government, and business” and “for shifting the explanation for inequality away from individual deficiencies and examining how societal stereotypes and structures cause inequalities.”
• , professor of chemistry and member faculty at the , “for leadership in the innovative synthesis and chemical modification of nanoscale materials for application in light emission and catalysis.”
• , professor of global health and of environmental and occupational health sciences, and founding director of the , “for work on the health impacts of climate change, on climate impact forecasting, on adaptation to climate change and on climate policy to protect health.”
• , professor of environmental and forest sciences and dean emeritus of the College of the Environment, “for foundational studies of regional paleoenvironmental history and sustained excellence in academic leadership to catalyze and sustain transformative research and educational initiatives.” Graumlich is also president-elect of the American Geophysical Union.
• Dr. , the Joseph W. Eschbach Endowed Chair in Kidney Research and co-director of the , “for pioneering contributions and outstanding achievements in the development of the novel wearable artificial kidney, as well as numerous investigator-initiated clinical trials and multi-center collaborative studies.”
• , professor of environmental chemistry and chair of the Physical Sciences Division at 91̽��Bothell, “for leadership in monitoring and understanding the global transport of atmospheric pollutants from energy production, wildfire, and other sources, as well as science communication and service that has informed citizens and enhanced public policy.”
• , professor and chair of psychology, “for contributions demonstrating how psychological science can inform long-standing issues about racial and gender discrimination” and “for research that has deep and penetrating implications for the law and societal efforts to remedy social inequities with evidence-based programs and actions.”
• , the Leon C. Johnson Professor of Chemistry, member faculty at the and chair of the Department of Chemistry, “for developing new spectroscopy tools for measuring energy flow in molecules and materials with high spatial and temporal resolution.”
• , professor of astronomy, “for founding the and leading the decades-long development of the interdisciplinary modeling framework and community needed to establish the science of exoplanet astrobiology” and “for training the next generation of interdisciplinary scientists who will search for life beyond Earth.”
• , professor and chair of aeronautics and astronautics, “for leadership and significant advances in nonlinear methods for integrated sensing and control in engineered, bioinspired and biological flight systems” and “for leadership in cross-disciplinary aerospace workforce development.”
• , associate professor of chemistry and member faculty with the Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute, “for exceptional contributions to the development of synthetic polymers and nanomaterials for self-assembly and advanced manufacturing with application in sustainability, medicine and microelectronics.”
• Dr. , Associate Dean of Medical Technology Innovation in the College of Engineering and the School of Medicine, the Graham and Brenda Siddall Endowed Chair in Cornea Research, and medical director of the 91̽��Eye Institute, “for developing and providing first class clinical treatment of severe corneal blindness to hundreds of people, for establishing the world premier artificial cornea program in Washington, and for leading collaborative research to translate innovative engineering technologies into creative clinical solution.”
• Dr. , professor of medicine and director of the , “for global recognition as an authority on drug and vaccine development for viral and parasitic diseases through work as an infectious disease physician and immunologist.”
• Dr. , professor of pediatrics and of anesthesiology and pain medicine, and director of the , “for outstanding leadership in pediatric anesthesiology and in the care of children with traumatic brain injury” and “for internationally recognized expertise in traumatic brain injury and direction of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center for the last decade as an exceptional mentor and visionary leader.”

91̽��members who will join the Washington State Academy of Sciences by virtue of their election to one of the National Academies are:

• , professor of biostatistics, “for the development of novel statistical models for longitudinal data to better diagnose disease, track its trajectory, and predict its outcomes” and “for revolutionizing how dynamic predictors are judged by their discrimination and calibration and has significantly advanced methods for randomized controlled trials.” Heagerty was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2021.
• , the Bill and Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science and Engineering, “for foundational contributions to the mathematics of computer systems and of the internet, as well as to the design and probabilistic analysis of algorithms, especially on-line algorithms, and algorithmic mechanism design and game theory.” Karlin was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
• , professor emeritus of applied mathematics and data science fellow at the , “for inventing key algorithms for hyperbolic conservation laws and transforming them into powerful numerical technologies” and “for creating the Clawpack package, which underpins a wide range of application codes in everyday use, such as for hazard assessment due to tsunamis and other geophysical phenomena.” LeVeque was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
• , the Benjamin D. Hall Endowed Chair in Basic Life Sciences and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, “for advancing our physical understanding of cell motility and growth in animals and bacteria” and “for discovering how the pathogen Listeria uses actin polymerization to move inside human cells, how crawling animal cells coordinate actomyosin dynamics and the mechanical basis of size control and daughter cell separation in bacteria.” Theriot was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.
• , professor and chair of biological structure, “for elucidating cellular transformations through which neurons pattern their dendrites, and the interplay of activity-dependent and -independent mechanisms leading to assembly of stereotyped circuits” and “for revelations regarding the fundamental principles of neuronal development through the application of an elegant combination of in vivo imaging, physiology, ultrastructure and genetics to the vertebrate retina.” Wong was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.

New members to the Washington State Academy of Sciences are scheduled to be inducted at a meeting in September.

Many universities already have designated facilities, such as social areas and cultural centers, specifically for students of color. But at some institutions, such spaces and programs have fallen victim to budget cuts or controversy.

The new research with authors at the 91̽�� and the University of Exeter in the U.K., aimed to test the value that college students — of many races — place on those facilities. For the research, hundreds of students at the 91̽��campus in Seattle read about plans for their university to add either a new ethnic space or a general space. Among underrepresented minority students who participated in the study, reading about plans for an ethnic space led to stronger feelings of belonging, support and engagement in the university.

“This work is important because we know that students from ethnic minority groups can feel less belonging in institutions where they are underrepresented,” said lead author , senior lecturer at the University of Exeter, who received her doctorate in psychology at the UW.

“We need to understand how to make underrepresented students of color feel more welcome,” she said. “Our research suggests that ethnic spaces are one good way to achieve this.”

The is published April 27 in Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Of the top 26 universities on US News and World Report’s undergraduate rankings for 2020, 18 mention having a space for underrepresented students of color.

At the UW, for example, the opened in 1968. Over the years, it has been renovated and expanded and is now believed to be the largest college cultural center in the United States. The 26,000-square-foot building provides meeting spaces, a computer lab, a dance studio and other programming.

Other studies have shown that through materials, policies and programs that do not marginalize their identities, as well as physical space. 91̽��psychology professor , a co-author of the current study on ethnic spaces, previously led a study about the ways computer science classrooms often appear unwelcoming to many women, potentially turning them away from the field.

In the current set of studies, the research team drew from the 91̽��campus. Researchers asked 205 students from underrepresented minority groups — namely, African American, Latinx and Native American students — and 760 white students to read about plans for either an ethnic or a general student space, like a student union building. The research was divided into four separate studies, each presenting students with slightly different versions of plans for ethnic spaces or general student spaces.

Results showed that reading about a new ethnic space increased feelings of belonging among underrepresented students of color regardless of whether they intended to use it.

“This suggests the importance of these spaces is partly about the signal they send,” said Kirby. “They are more than just gathering places — they show students from underrepresented ethnic groups that they are welcome at the university.”

For white students, reading about ethnic spaces increased perceptions that the university valued underrepresented students. However, these white students felt lower senses of belonging, support and campus engagement than white students who read about a general student space. The studies did not examine the cause of this difference, so it is unclear whether the general student center boosted their senses of belonging, support and engagement, whether the ethnic space reduced them, or both.

Overall, the studies underscore how even the idea of a space for students of color can boost their feelings of inclusion.

“Creating physical spaces for underrepresented students of color (and supporting those that already exist) is one powerful way to reduce academic disparities by signalling to underrepresented students that they are valued by the broader university,” Cheryan said.

The study lends itself to further exploration, the authors said, such as the impact of ethnic spaces on specific groups, and whether the effects of ethnic spaces vary based on the degree of campus diversity.

Kirby and co-author Joshua Tabak, who received his doctorate in psychology at the UW, were funded by the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowships Program. Maria Ilac, a 91̽��undergraduate in psychology, also was a co-author.

For more information, contact Cheryan at scheryan@uw.edu or Kirby at T.Kirby@Exeter.ac.uk.

Adapted from a University of Exeter news release.

The in the United States — Asian Americans — is also one that is consistently perceived as “foreign.”

But for Asian Americans who are gay or lesbian, their sexual orientation may make them seem more “American” than those who are presumed straight. A new 91̽�� study, the latest in research to examine stereotypes, identity and ideas about who is “American,” focuses on how sexual orientation and race come together to influence others’ perceptions.

“Research on race is often separate from research on sexual orientation. Here we bring the two together to understand how they interact to influence judgments of how American someone is considered,” said , a 91̽��associate professor of psychology.

Cheryan in 2017 authored a , which showed how stereotypically American traits, such as being overweight, made Asian Americans seem more “American.” The by Cheryan and her students, a collection of four studies, was published June 27 in .

Research has shown that , and in general, are seen as less American than white Americans, and face prejudice and discrimination throughout various aspects of life.  Regarding sexual orientation, studies have found that, relative to countries such as Japan and South Korea, the United States has , and .

The new 91̽��research involved four separate, diverse groups of participants drawn from the 91̽��student population, all of whom were asked to answer questions related to brief, written descriptions of hypothetical people or scenarios.

In the first study, participants were randomly assigned to read a brief descriptive phrase of a person named John, identified either as “an Asian American man” or “a gay Asian American man.” They were then asked to rate, using a seven-point scale, how American they considered him through questions such as “How fluently do you think this person speaks English?” and “How integrated is this person in American culture?”

Researchers found that the hypothetical “gay Asian American man” was perceived as significantly more American than the hypothetical “Asian American man,” whose sexual orientation wasn’t specified.

The second study used similar questions, but included a greater variety of hypothetical people: men, women, whites and Asian Americans. Sexual orientation was noted as “gay” or wasn’t listed. Researchers assigned “American” names to the fictional people — names that were popular in the United States in the 1980s: Matt, Chris, Michael, Jessica, Jennifer and Ashley. The same results emerged: Asian Americans identified as gay were perceived to be more American than Asian Americans whose sexual orientation was not identified.

Whites were perceived as American no matter their sexual orientation.

“These studies demonstrate once again the widely-held assumption that whites are the most American. Though being gay increased perceptions of Asian Americans’ ‘Americanness,’ it was still not nearly enough to close the gap in perceptions between Asian Americans and whites,” said , a 91̽��graduate student and study co-author.

The other two studies focused on perceived differences between “American culture” and “Asian culture,” and how LGBTQ-friendly the cultures appear to be. In one study, researchers wrote descriptions of fake countries that were either presented as less welcoming and accepting of gay people than the U.S. or equally welcoming and accepting. Participants rated Asian culture as less LGBTQ-friendly, and a gay person as more American if they were associated with a country of origin that was less LGBTQ-friendly. “American culture is perceived as more accepting of gay people compared to Asian culture. As a result, gay Asian Americans are perceived as more likely to be American than their straight counterparts,” the authors wrote.

But that doesn’t mean LGBTQ Asian Americans face less discrimination, Cheryan said. While sexual orientation may affect a person’s perceived “foreignness,” it doesn’t protect against other forms of discrimination and harassment, she added.

“One possible extension of this work is that gay Asian Americans may be less likely to have their American identities questioned than straight Asian Americans,” said Cheryan. “At the same time, being gay puts people more at risk for other forms of prejudice based on sexual orientation.”

The research lends itself to comparisons with other races, ethnicities and countries, the authors wrote, such as exploring the intersection of sexual orientation and race in the context of cultures that are believed to be more or less LGBTQ-friendly.

Other co-authors on the study were Mika Semrow and of the UW.

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For more information, contact Cheryan at scheryan@uw.edu.

Sapna Cheryan has spent much of her career researching the stereotypes that contribute to male-dominated science and technology fields.

She’s traced those ideas to childhood, to the toys boys and girls play with and to the beliefs they form about who programs a computer and who feels at home in a lab.

So when Mattel in the spring asked , an associate professor of psychology at the 91̽��, to advise on its most iconic toy – the Barbie doll – it felt, somewhat ironically, like an opportunity.

“If there’s a way to influence children, it’s through a toy,” Cheryan said. “Toys are really important. The first way kids get experience with different fields is through toys, like a toy microscope. But the toy market is very gender-segregated. Physics toys and dinosaurs are still seen as boys’ toys.

“Toys are communicating who’s interested, who’s good, and who belongs.”

The Barbie Global Advisory Council is made up of 12 people from a range of occupations who serve a one-year term to, as the company puts it, “act as a collective sounding board for the brand.” Mattel picked Cheryan because of her research on diversity, stereotypes and gender gaps in STEM, all of which will “help inform and refine Barbie brand initiatives” around career-themed dolls and related items, according to a statement from the company.

Women are underrepresented in many STEM fields, especially computer science, engineering and physics. According to a 2017 led by Cheryan, women earn 37 percent of STEM degrees in the United States, and 18 percent of computer science degrees.

This year’s Barbie Council includes other experts in STEM-related fields, as well as culture and identity, such as , an associate professor of psychology at NYU; , host of the Xploration Outer Space TV show; and , director of the Center for Digital Media Innovation and Diversity at George Mason University.

The Barbie line has expanded in recent years, with dolls of different body types, skin tones and hairstyles, and career and “role model” dolls that represent various professions and famous women and girls (Olympic gold medal snowboarder Chloe Kim is among the latest). Even Ken has had something of a makeover, with more than a dozen versions of the doll. And in June, the company introduced a new career doll: robotics engineer Barbie, which comes with its own online coding lessons.

But Barbie’s transition hasn’t been entirely smooth. Customers were quick to criticize an early version of computer engineer Barbie, which, in its companion storybook, turned to two boys for help in fixing a laptop. Another edition of scientist Barbie wore a not-lab-ready short skirt and high heels. The advisory council was formed in 2015 and is meant to steer the brand into the future, according to Mattel. Council members receive $10,000 for their service.

The company’s continued efforts to evolve the toy swayed Cheryan, who has in her office computer engineer Barbie, which was a gift from a friend, and a doll representing Katherine Johnson (a NASA mathematician made famous in the film “Hidden Figures”), which was a gift from Mattel. Much of Cheryan’s research, involving both children and adults, has examined how cultural beliefs about STEM shape an individual’s own sense of identity and belonging. One co-authored , for example, focused on exposing young children to robotics through toys. In that experiment, 6-year-old girls who programmed a simple animal robot were more likely than girls who played a card game to express interest in technology and confidence in their programming skills.

Another redesigned a hypothetical computer science classroom, and asked teens to indicate how likely they would be to enroll in each version of the class. One classroom featured action figures on the desks and Star Trek and video game posters on the walls, while the other room was decorated with plants and art. The study found that girls were less likely to enroll in the stereotypically “male” classroom.

“A lot of messages are that girls should change to fit into these fields,” Cheryan said. “My work shifts the focus from changing girls to changing the field or the image of the field. Some girls (and boys, too) don’t relate to the geeky or ‘bro’ image of the tech sector, and they shouldn’t have to change themselves to feel like they can be successful in those fields.”

Whether a Barbie dressed as a robotics engineer can influence a girl’s future career choice remains to be seen, Cheryan added. With research that shows the impact of changing the environment of a classroom or workspace, she said, a toy can be part of that.

“We need to broaden the images of different fields by showing different examples: different role models, environments and portrayals in the media,” Cheryan said. “Considering the reach Barbie has, why not try?”

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For more information, contact Cheryan at scheryan@uw.edu.

What makes people look “American”?

The way they dress? Maybe their hairstyle, or mannerisms? How much they weigh?

A 91̽��-led study has found that for Asian Americans, those who appear heavier not only are perceived to be more “American,” but also may be subject to less prejudice directed at foreigners than Asian Americans who are thin.

Researchers believe this effect relates to common stereotypes that Asians are thin and Americans are heavy — so if someone of Asian heritage is heavy, then they appear to be more “American.”

The 91̽��study comes at an especially charged time for discussions of American identity. In today’s political climate, beliefs — and often stereotypes — about race, ethnicity and religion factor into debates about who is “American.”

That’s what researchers said they wanted to explore.

The , published July 26 in Psychological Science, used photos to gauge viewers’ impressions. More than 1,000 college students viewed photos of men and women (Asian, black, Latino, and white) of varying weights, then answered questions about the photo subject’s nationality and other traits.

“In the U.S., there is a strong bias associating American identity with whiteness, and this can have negative consequences for people of color in the U.S.,” said corresponding author , a doctoral student at Stanford University who conducted the study while at the UW. “We wanted to see whether ideas of nationality are malleable and how body shape factors into these judgments.”

Weight, Handron added, is just one of many cues people rely on when making judgments of someone else’s nationality.

Statistically speaking, being overweight is common among Americans: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that some 70 percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese. When the data is broken down by race, Asian Americans tend to be less obese than people of other racial and ethnic groups. The prevalence of obesity among Asian Americans is 11.7 percent, among white Americans 34.5 percent, among Latino Americans 42.5 percent, and among black Americans, 48 percent. More specifically, within the U.S., Asian immigrants are significantly less likely to be overweight than native-born Asian Americans.

Population trends in obesity around the world, along with common stereotypes about who is “foreign,” helped inform the experiment, researchers wrote in the study. For example, did study participants view Asian and Latino Americans as less American than white and black Americans?

For the studies, researchers used photos collected from online databases — images that were then edited to create thinner and heavier versions of each subject to hold other cues to nationality constant. Participants were asked questions such as: “How likely is this person to have been born outside the U.S.?” and: “How likely is it that this person’s native language is English”?

Researchers found that Asian Americans who appeared to be heavy were more likely than their thinner counterparts to be presumed to be American and in the United States with documentation.

White and black Americans were perceived as significantly more American than Asian or Latino Americans. But weight did not affect how “American” participants rated white and black individuals in the photos, researchers found. This supported their theory that people believed to be from other countries — specifically, countries that are stereotypically thin — are considered more American if they’re heavy.

, a 91̽��associate professor of psychology and a co-author of the study, called the finding “an unusual possible protective benefit of being heavier for Asian Americans.”

“People in the U.S. often encounter prejudice if they are overweight — they may be mistreated by a customer service person, for example, or a health care provider. Weight can be an obstacle to getting good treatment,” Cheryan said. “We found that there was a paradoxical social benefit for Asian Americans, where extra weight allows them to be seen as more American and less likely to face prejudice directed at those assumed to be foreign.”

For years, Cheryan has examined stereotypes and the ways people of various races and ethnicities navigate the idea of what it means to be American. In 2011, she published a showing that immigrants to the United States eat quintessentially (and frequently unhealthy) American foods to show that they belong.

The new study, she added, is a reminder that notions of who is “American” are powerful, and that judgments can be made by a simple photo.

Handron said the study also shows how perceptions reflect broader, systemic disparities.

“The lack of representation of Asian Americans and other people of color in the media and positions of power reinforces associations between American identity and whiteness,” she said. “This work supports the call to recognize these inaccurate assumptions in order to interrupt the resulting harm being done to these communities.”

The study points to the potential for future analysis of stereotypes and identity. For instance, if Americans are stereotyped as outgoing, and Asians are generally believed to be reserved, does someone who is Asian American seem more “American” if they’re gregarious? Does the same hold true for Latino Americans, since Latinos are often stereotyped as outgoing?

This has potential consequences for who is considered inside or outside a group. People who are already marginalized are often the most vulnerable to exclusion based on behaviors or physical features, researchers noted in the paper.

Other authors were Teri Kirby of the University of Exeter, Jennifer Wang of Microsoft and Helena Ester Matskewich of the UW.

The study was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Western Washington University Faculty Research Grant and the SPSSI Grants-in-Aid program.

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For more information, contact Handron at handron@stanford.edu or Cheryan at scheryan@uw.edu.

Girls start believing they aren’t good at math, science and even computers at a young age — but providing fun STEM activities at school and home may spark interest and inspire confidence.

A from the 91̽��’s (I-LABS) finds that, when exposed to a computer-programming activity, 6-year-old girls expressed greater interest in technology and more positive attitudes about their own skills and abilities than girls who didn’t try the activity.

The results suggest both a need and an opportunity for teaching computer science, in particular, in early elementary school, said , a research scientist at I-LABS and the study’s lead author. Introducing concepts and skills when girls are young can boost their confidence and prompt interest in a field in which women today are .

“As a society, we have these built-in beliefs that are pushing boys toward certain activities more than girls. So our thought was, if you give equal experiences to boys and girls, what happens?” Master said. “We found that if you give them access to same opportunities, then girls and boys have the same response — equal interest and confidence.”

The study, published online in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, involved 96 6-year-olds, evenly divided among boys and girls, who were randomly assigned one of three groups. In the first group, each child programmed a robot, then answered survey questions; in the second group, each played a storytelling card game, then answered the same questions, while those in the third group only answered the questions. The survey was designed to collect kids’ opinions of technology activities, like the robot, and their beliefs about whether girls or boys are better at computer programming and robotics.

Programming, the researchers explained to the children, is “when you tell a computer or a robot or a phone what to do.”

For the robot activity, children chose an animal-like robot. They first followed step-by-step instructions on a smartphone to “tell” it to move forward, backward, right or left, then chose the instructions themselves, of the robots. The study found that after completing the robot activity, the boys and girls showed equal interest in technology and their own feelings of self-efficacy, or confidence in their own abilities.

But when compared to the “control group” of children who played the card game or only answered the survey without playing a game, the difference was striking: The designed activity with the robot reduced the gender gap in technology interest by 42 percent, and the gap in self-efficacy by 80 percent.

In other words, girls who programmed the robot were much more likely to express interest in programming and confidence in their own abilities to perform technology-related tasks than the girls who didn’t work with the robot.

Co-author and I-LABS co-director said, “Experience in programming the robot movement was something that both boys and girls thought was fun. But the most important finding is that we brought the girls’ interest and motivation in STEM up to the level of the boys. This was a big impact for a brief, well-designed intervention. How long will it last? That’s an important question for future scientific experiments.”

The findings suggest that incorporating more programming activities in the classroom or at home may ignite and sustain girls’ interest, Master said. Summer camps, after-school programs and other partner- or group-oriented activities present natural opportunities.

“The important thing is to make activities accessible to all children in a fun way that also helps them build skills,” she said.

The study’s robot activity did not, however, appear to change the children’s stereotypes about whether boys or girls are better at programming and robotics. While the girls who programmed the robot indicated greater confidence in their own abilities, that confidence did not alter their stereotypes, picked up from the culture, about girls and boys in general. The authors pointed to the potential of other experiences, such as meeting or seeing a woman programming a robot or working in a STEM field, for shifting these more deeply-held stereotypes.

“Stereotypes get built up in our heads from many different sources and experiences, but perhaps if we give girls more experience doing these kinds of activities, that will give them more resources to resist those stereotypes,” Master said. “They might be able to say, ‘I can still be good at this and enjoy it, despite the cultural stereotypes.'” The researchers hope to test this in future studies.

Researchers on the study also included , associate professor in the Department of Psychology, along with Adriana Moscatelli of Play Works Studio in Seattle. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

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For more information, contact Allison Master at almaster@uw.edu.

Women’s relative lack of participation in science, technology, engineering and math is well documented, but why women are more represented in some STEM areas than others is less clear.

A new 91̽�� is among the first to address that question by comparing gender disparities across STEM fields. Published Oct. 12 in the journal Psychological Bulletin, the paper identifies three main factors driving the disparity — and the most powerful one, the researchers conclude, is a “masculine culture” that makes many women feel like they don’t belong.

“There is widespread knowledge that women are underrepresented in STEM, but people tend to lump STEM fields together,” said lead author , a 91̽��associate professor of psychology. “This is one of the first attempts to really dig down into why women are more underrepresented in some STEM fields than others.”

Women now earn about 37 percent of undergraduate STEM degrees in the United States, but their representation varies widely across those fields. Women receive more than 40 percent of undergraduate degrees in math, for example, but just 18 percent of degrees in computer science.

The 91̽��study focused on six of the largest science and engineering fields with the most undergraduate degrees: biology, chemistry and math, which have the highest proportions of female participation, and computer science, engineering and physics, which have bigger gender gaps.

The researchers analyzed more than 1,200 papers about women’s underrepresentation in STEM, and from those identified 10 factors that impact gender differences in students’ interest and participation in STEM. Then they winnowed the list down to the three factors most likely to explain gendered patterns in the six STEM fields — a lack of pre-college experience, gender gaps in belief about one’s abilities, and a masculine culture that discourages women from participating.

The paper identifies three main aspects of that masculine culture: stereotypes of the fields that are incompatible with how many women perceive themselves, negative stereotypes about women’s abilities and a dearth of role models. Those factors decrease women’s interest in a field by signaling that they do not belong there, the researchers write.

A lack of pre-college experience is also a factor, the paper finds. The gender gap in STEM interest is smaller among high school seniors at schools with stronger math and science offerings, the researchers note. But courses in computer science, engineering and physics are less likely to be offered and required in U.S. high schools than courses in biology, chemistry and mathematics — leaving students with little information about what those fields are like and who might be suited for them.

“Students are basing their educational decisions in large part on their perceptions of a field,” Cheryan said. “And not having early experience with what a field is really like makes it more likely that they will rely on their stereotypes about that field and who is good at it.”

A lack of experience does not itself cause women’s underrepresentation in STEM, the researchers write. Women are attracted to many fields that students are typically not exposed to before college, such as nursing and social work, the researchers note. But when a lack of early experience is accompanied by a masculine culture, the gender proportion skews male. Early learning opportunities in STEM, Cheryan said, will only attract girls if they convey that girls belong in those fields as much as boys do.

“If we’re not providing students with a welcoming culture, these efforts are not likely to succeed,” she said.

Belief in one’s abilities was a common theme in previous studies and may help explain current gender gaps, but Cheryan said inconsistent findings made it a less compelling factor. For example, she said, girls tend to report less confidence in their math abilities than boys, but the field of math is still relatively gender-balanced.

Similarly, Cheryan said, gender discrimination in hiring and other opportunities was not able to explain current patterns of variability. The researchers expected to find less discrimination in the fields with higher female representation, she said, but discovered that it differed little across the six areas.

The researchers embarked on the study focusing primarily on women’s choices, Cheryan said, but quickly realized that explaining women’s underrepresentation required also looking at men’s choices. The proportion of women receiving computer science degrees, for example, has declined steadily since the mid-1980s, due more to an influx of men to the field than a drop in women’s participation. Cultural historians attribute the shift to the advent of the personal computer and an accompanying stereotype of the nerdy male computer genius.

“When we drilled down into the numbers, we realized that if we just looked at women, that wouldn’t tell the whole story,” Cheryan said. “Underrepresentation is shaped just as much by what men are doing as by what women are doing.”

The researchers conclude that a more inclusive culture across STEM fields is the most effective way to boost female participation. That can be achieved, Cheryan said, by developing “subcultures” that make girls feel they belong, whether that involves to create a more welcoming environment or counteracting negative stereotypes about women’s abilities by making it clear that everyone has the potential to succeed.

“Cultural change is never easy, but there are lots of examples of it being done successfully, and it translates into changing who’s in a particular field,” she said.

The research was funded by the Sloan Foundation and the National Science Foundation. The study’s co-authors are , a 91̽��master’s student in psychology when the research was conducted; , a former 91̽��undergraduate now at Ohio State University; and , former lab manager of the UW’s .

For more information, contact Cheryan at scheryan@uw.edu or 206-612-9812.

Societal norms dictating that men should be masculine are powerful. And new 91̽�� research finds that men who believe they fall short of those ideals might be prompted to reassert their masculinity in small but significant ways.

Published last week in Social Psychology, the sought to understand how men respond when their masculinity is threatened, and looked at two specific strategies they might employ: playing up their manliness and rejecting feminine preferences.

The found that male college students who were given falsely low results on a handgrip strength test exaggerated their height by three-quarters of an inch on average, reported having more romantic relationships, claimed to be more aggressive and athletic, and showed less interest in stereotypically feminine consumer products.

By contrast, men who received average score results, and whose masculinity was therefore not threatened, did not exaggerate those characteristics. The findings, researchers say, underscore the pressure men feel to live up to gender stereotypes and the ways in which they might reinstate a threatened masculinity.

“We know that being seen as masculine is very important for a lot of men,” said lead author , a 91̽��associate professor of psychology. “We discovered that the things that men were using to assert their masculinity were the very things that are used as signals of identity.”

The research involved male students at Stanford University, where Cheryan received her doctorate in psychology. The students were told they were participating in research on how exertion impacts decision-making and were asked to squeeze a handheld device with each hand.

Researchers marked their scores on sheets that showed bogus bell curves representing male and female results, with the female curve clearly lower than the male one. Participants were scored either in the middle of the female or the male curve, suggesting that their grip was either weak or average.

They were then asked to fill out a questionnaire asking about their height, number of previous relationships, various personality traits and their interest in products that skewed male or female, along with “distracter questions” about things like college major that were intended to allay potential suspicion about the study.

Cheryan said the consistent exaggeration about height among the group who thought they scored lower was particularly surprising.

“Height is something you think would be fixed, but how tall you say you are is malleable, at least for men,” she said.

Though the study focused exclusively on men, Cheryan noted that women also feel pressure to live up to gender ideals of femininity, such as being people-focused and nurturing. If women believe they are falling short of those expectations, Cheryan said, they might make choices with potentially negative consequences to demonstrate that they fit gender norms — for example, avoiding classes in traditionally male fields such as science and technology.

Cheryan got the idea for the experiments from a men’s fitness magazine she was reading while working out at the gym several years ago. The magazine had a feature that asked men on the street how much they could bench press and then brought them into a gym to put their statements to the test.

Most couldn’t bench what they claimed they could, and that got Cheryan thinking: What would those men do, she wondered, now that their masculinity was threatened? Would they acknowledge that they weren’t as strong as they perhaps thought? Try to bolster their manliness in response?

So Cheryan devised the handgrip experiment and a second one that required a male group of students to take a computer-based masculinity test with multiple-choice questions about consumer preferences and personal attributes.

In the second experiment, the participants were told the median score on the test was 72 out of 100, with 100 being “completely masculine,” and were randomly given a score of 26 or 73. They were then asked about a range of products they could receive as compensation. As with the handgrip experiment, the participants who thought they scored lower were less interested in more feminine consumer products.

“This research shows that men are under very strong prescriptive norms to be a certain way, and they work hard to correct the image they project when their masculinity is under threat,” said co-author Benoît Monin, a professor of organizational behavior and psychology at Stanford University

The findings might seem amusing, but other studies have found that men compensate for a lack of masculinity in ways that aren’t as innocuous. Men with baby faces, for example, were more likely to have assertive and hostile personalities and commit crimes than their more chiseled counterparts. Men who were told they scored low on masculinity tests were more likely to act aggressively, harass women and belittle other men.

Additionally, unemployed men were to instigate violence against women, and men who were not their household’s primary breadwinner were to share in housework duties.

Identifying the various strategies men use when their masculinity is threatened, Cheryan said, can help with understanding male behavior in real-life situations.

“Men have a lot of power in our society, and what this study shows is that some decisions can be influenced by how they’re feeling about their masculinity in the moment,” she said.

Other co-authors are Zach Katagiri and Jessica Schwartz Cameron of Stanford University.

A new study by 91̽�� researchers identifies a main culprit for that disparity: inaccurate stereotypes depicting computer scientists and engineers as geeky, brilliant and socially awkward males. And they say broadening those stereotypes is key to attracting more girls to the two fields.

Deeply ingrained in modern American society, stereotypes about computer science and engineering are widely accepted by students and effectively discourage girls from pursuing careers in those fields, the researchers conclude in the , published this week in Frontiers in Psychology.

“People use these images to decide where they fit, where they’re going to be successful and what’s appropriate for them to pursue,” said , an associate professor of psychology and the paper’s lead author.

“The first image that comes to mind for many students is the guy who is obsessed with science fiction and technology, and not interested in people. Students often think you have to fit that image to be successful at computer science.”

While women obtain about of undergraduate degrees in biological sciences, they earn only of computer science degrees. Misconceptions about girls’ math abilities take root as early as second grade, the study notes, and combine with stereotypes about the culture of the two fields as being incompatible with traits associated with women, such as a desire to work with and help others.

The result: Women feel like they don’t belong in computer science or engineering, and stay away.

“Our work uncovers a kind of double whammy that discourages women from the field — a combination of false stereotypes about women’s abilities, coupled with a narrow view of the culture of the field and who can be successful computer scientists,” said , co-director of the 91̽��Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences and a co-author of the study.

Things weren’t always this way. Women were early of computing science and worked in the field for decades. But women’s interest in computing started declining in the 1980s, correlating with when early personal computers were marketed to boys as toys for gaming. The same decade, the character of the lovable geek was made famous in ‘films like “Real Genius” and “Weird Science.”

“The media plays a huge role in conveying these stereotypes,” Cheryan said.

To test what impact those pervasive stereotypes have on young women, the researchers brought female undergraduates into a room to have a short conversation with an actor, during which they chatted about their studies and interests. Three male and three female actors were used, and all claimed they were computer science majors.

Half the female undergrads were randomly assigned to interact with actors dressed to fit a stereotype based on what students surveyed by the researchers associated with computer scientists. Those actors claimed to enjoy solitary hobbies such as playing video games.

The other undergrads were matched with actors dressed in a way associated with typical college students, who cited hobbies including hanging out with friends.

Asked afterward about their interest in their partners’ majors, the women paired with the stereotypical actors were significantly less interested majoring in computer science. That was the case whether the actor was male or female — suggesting that gender matters less in influencing women’s interest in computer science than whether the stereotype is depicted.

Similarly, the paper cites research which found that women were less interested in computer science when they entered a classroom decorated with objects such as Star Trek posters and science fiction books than one adorned with nature posters and more neutral books.

The researchers recommend diversifying computer science and engineering to make them more inclusive and counteract stereotypes. That can be done, they say, by representing the fields with a broader range of people, creating physical spaces that welcome both men and women, and shifting the media narrative about who computer scientists and engineers are.

“Stereotypes are the pictures we carry around in our minds, but they are not necessarily accurate. The professions are much broader than many people think,” Meltzoff said.

“The scientific results are starting to teach us how to make computer science more appealing to women.”

Some schools have taken steps to reduce gender disparities in computer science. 91̽��Computer Science & Engineering, for example, has a �����Ի� for 91̽��students. Women now earn about 30 percent of undergraduate computer science degrees at the university, roughly twice the national average for research-intensive universities.

Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, divided its introductory computer science course into two sections — “gold” for those with minimal previous experience and “black” for other students – and pays for any female freshman to travel to the annual . The school’s percentage of female computer science graduates has increased from a low in the single digits to nearly in 2012.

Though stereotypes die hard, it’s possible for computer science and engineering to break away from inaccurate perceptions, Cheryan said.

“It’s about making students aware of the diversity in computer science and engineering so that women feel that there is a place for them in the field,” she said. “This research shows that broadening the image of these fields is not only possible, it can be done with some simple changes.”

The paper’s other co-author is , a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences.