Reducing STEM gender bias with VIDS (video interventions for diversity in STEM).

Gender biases contribute to the underrepresentation of women in STEM. In response, the scientific community has called for methods to reduce bias, but few validated interventions exist. Thus, an interdisciplinary group of researchers and filmmakers partnered to create VIDS (Video Interventions for Diversity in STEM), which are short videos that expose participants to empirical findings from published gender bias research in 1 of 3 conditions. One condition illustrated findings using narratives (compelling stories), and the second condition presented the same results using expert interviews (straightforward facts). A hybrid condition included both narrative and expert interview videos. Results of two experiments revealed that relative to controls, VIDS successfully reduced gender bias and increased awareness of gender bias, positive attitudes toward women in STEM, anger, empathy, and intentions to engage in behaviors that promote gender parity in STEM. The narratives were particularly impactful for emotions, while the expert interviews most strongly impacted awareness and attitudes. The hybrid condition reflected the strengths of both the narratives and expert interviews (though effects were sometimes slightly weaker than the other conditions). VIDS produced substantial immediate effects among both men and women in the general population and STEM faculty, and effects largely persisted at follow-up. (PsycINFO Database Record

Reducing implicit racial preferences: II. Intervention effectiveness across time.

Implicit preferences are malleable, but does that change last? We tested 9 interventions (8 real and 1 sham) to reduce implicit racial preferences over time. In 2 studies with a total of 6,321 participants, all 9 interventions immediately reduced implicit preferences. However, none were effective after a delay of several hours to several days. We also found that these interventions did not change explicit racial preferences and were not reliably moderated by motivations to respond without prejudice. Short-term malleability in implicit preferences does not necessarily lead to long-term change, raising new questions about the flexibility and stability of implicit preferences. (PsycINFO Database Record

The development of stereotype content: The use of warmth and competence in assessing social groups.

Past research suggests that warmth and competence are primary dimensions of social perception used by adults to understand social groups. The current study investigated whether children use these two dimensions to structure their representations of familiar groups. Results indicated that adult warmth and competence judgments were independent from one another and placed groups in warmth by competence space in ways consistent with past work. However, children showed some sensitivity to both dimensions but did not treat them as independent. Children's judgments of competence were closely aligned with adult judgments, but their judgments of warmth were influenced by factors that solely influenced adult judgments of competence. These data suggest that children develop an understanding of competence as an independent dimension prior to developing an understanding of warmth as an independent dimension and that their judgments of warmth may reflect a more general summing of all available evaluative information. Implications for children's developing understanding of the broader intergroup landscape are discussed.