The Role of Social and Ability Belonging in Men's and Women's pSTEM Persistence.

The benefits of belonging for academic performance and persistence have been examined primarily in terms of subjective perceptions of social belonging, but feeling ability belonging, or fit with one's peers intellectually, is likely also important for academic success. This may particularly be the case in male-dominated fields, where inherent genius and natural talent are viewed as prerequisites for success. We tested the hypothesis that social and ability belonging each explain intentions to persist in physical science, technology, engineering, and math (pSTEM). We further explore whether women experience lower social and ability belonging than men on average in pSTEM and whether belonging more strongly relates to intentions to persist for women. At three time points throughout a semester, we assessed undergraduate pSTEM majors enrolled in a foundational calculus or physics course. Women reported lower pSTEM ability belonging and self-efficacy than men but higher identification with pSTEM. End-of-semester social belonging, ability belonging, and identification predicted intentions to persist in pSTEM, with a stronger relationship between social belonging and intentions to persist in pSTEM for women than men. These findings held after controlling for prior and current academic performance, as well as two conventional psychological predictors of academic success.

Leveraging the Social Role of Dad to Change Gender Stereotypes of Men.

Trait stereotypes of men tend to be more fixed and negative than those of women. The current studies test whether stereotypes of men can be shifted through leveraging their social role as fathers. Trait attributes perceived to characterize women and moms were highly redundant, but those of men and dads were less so; moreover, men were perceived more negatively than dads, women, and moms (Study 1). Perceivers for whom the social role father was made salient rated men more similarly to dads, and no less similarly to men, and rated men more positively relative to a control condition (Study 2). Finally, among men, a threat to the category men resulted in greater opposition to benevolent social policies, but not if the social role father was primed (Study 3). Discussion focuses on positive consequences of increasing the psychological connection between men and fatherhood.

Public Attitudes and Feelings of Warmth Toward Women and Men Experiencing Depression During the Perinatal Period.

OBJECTIVE: Depression is a major public health concern and often goes untreated. In response to a growing body of research documenting stigma as a barrier to depression care, this study focused on examining public stigma toward potentially vulnerable subpopulations. METHODS: Participants (N=241) were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk and randomly assigned to provide anonymous ratings on attitudes and feelings of warmth toward pregnant women and expectant fathers experiencing depression, mothers and fathers experiencing postpartum depression, or women and men experiencing depression during nonperinatal periods. RESULTS: Participants reported significantly more negative attitudes about depressed men than women, and male participants reported significantly more negative attitudes than female participants toward depressed individuals. Similarly, participants felt significantly less warmth toward depressed men than women, and male participants expressed significantly less warmth than female participants toward depressed individuals. Male participants felt equally warm toward men and women who experienced depression during nonperinatal periods, whereas female participants felt significantly warmer toward women who experienced depression during nonperinatal periods compared with men. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that the public views depressed men more negatively than depressed women and that males are more likely to hold stigmatizing attitudes toward depression, suggesting the importance of reducing stigma directed toward men with depression and stigma held by men toward persons with depression. Attitudes and feelings toward depressed individuals did not consistently vary by perinatal status. These findings are an initial step in improving depression treatment engagement strategies and in identifying those who would benefit most from stigma reduction programs.

Psychological essentialism, gender, and parenthood: Physical transformation leads to heightened essentialist conceptions.

Psychological essentialism is the tendency to view entities as if they have an underlying, often invisible essence that makes them what they are (Medin & Ortony, 1989), and the presence of a genetic basis for group membership contributes to such conceptions (Dar-Nimrod & Heine, 2011; Keller, 2005). We argue that undergoing visually salient physical transformations in the process of becoming a group member leads to particularly heightened essentialist conceptions. We test this idea in the context of parenthood. Public discourse suggests the category mother is imbued with special properties and is viewed as a deeper, more lasting, and real category than father. Such perceptions may contribute to unequal work outcomes for women relative to men. Collectively, the 5 studies reported show that mothers are perceived in more essentialist terms than fathers, and that physical changes women undergo in the process of becoming mothers play a substantial role in producing this difference. Moreover, viewing mothers as a particularly natural and real category predicted judgments that women struggle to successfully manage their roles as mothers and professionals, but only when motherhood was biological in nature. The role that observable physical transformations may play in the reification of categories is discussed.

Measuring intergroup ideologies: positive and negative aspects of emphasizing versus looking beyond group differences.

Research on interethnic relations has focused on two ideologies, asking whether it is best to de-emphasize social-category differences (colorblind) or emphasize and celebrate differences (multicultural). We argue each of these can manifest with negative outgroup evaluations: Assimilationism demands that subordinate groups adopt dominant group norms to minimize group distinctions; segregationism holds that groups should occupy separate spheres. Parallel versions can be identified for intergender relations. Scales to measure all four ideologies are developed both for ethnicity (Studies 1 and 2) and gender (Studies 3 and 4). Results demonstrate that the ideologies can be reliably measured, that the hypothesized four-factor models are superior to alternative models with fewer factors, and that the ideologies relate as predicted to the importance ascribed to group distinctions, subordinate group evaluations, and solution preferences for intergroup conflict scenarios. We argue that this fourfold model can help clarify theory and measurement, allowing a more nuanced assessment of ideological attitudes.