1-080 - Do People Like Me Belong in STEM? Social Cognitive Influences on Children’s STEM Motivation

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

There is a pressing need to increase students’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), especially for students who are members of groups underrepresented in STEM. What factors influence children’s beliefs about whether people like them belong and can succeed in STEM fields? This symposium addresses various ways that children’s social cognitions (their beliefs about social groups including “girls” and “scientists”) influence their motivation to pursue STEM.

In the first paper, the authors will discuss how linguistic cues that frame science as something that you are (“being a scientist”) or as something that you do (“doing science”) can shape children’s interest and self-efficacy in science over time. In the second paper, the authors will discuss variations in how children acquire beliefs that associate brilliance with men, including variations in the cultural backgrounds of the children and the targets they evaluate, and the implications of these differences. In the third paper, the authors will discuss the development of explicit and indirect gender stereotypes about who has more spatial, math, and reading ability, and how those stereotypes may feed into gender differences in STEM motivation. In the fourth paper, the authors will discuss how gender stereotypes about interest in computer science may deter girls from pursuing computer science, potentially even more strongly than stereotypes about ability.

Taken together, the papers in this symposium highlight the importance of societal messages about who belongs in STEM fields, and how those messages influence children’s perceptions of whether they can and should pursue STEM.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Allison Master, University of Washington

Individual Presentations

• Children Lose Confidence in Their Potential to “Be Scientists”, but not in Their Capacity to “Do Science” - Presenting Author: Marjorie Rhodes, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Ryan Lei, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Emily Green, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Sarah-Jane Leslie, Princeton University

• The Acquisition of Gender Stereotypes about Brilliance: A Cross-Cultural and Intersectional Perspective - Presenting Author: Jilana S. Boston, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Ryan Lei, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Eleanor Chestnut, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Reut Vraneski-Shachnai, Cornell University; Non-Presenting Author: Siqi Zhao, Nanyang Technological University; Non-Presenting Author: Daniel Storage, University of Denver; Non-Presenting Author: Peipei Setoh, Nanyang Technological University; Non-Presenting Author: Andrei Cimpian, New York University

• The Development of Gender Stereotypes about Spatial, Math, and Reading Domains - Presenting Author: Lindsey Hildebrand, Boston College; Non-Presenting Author: Jamie Jirout, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Nora S. Newcombe, Temple University; Non-Presenting Author: Elizabeth Gunderson, Temple University

• Differential Power of Distinct Kinds of STEM Stereotypes: Interest Versus Ability Stereotypes - Presenting Author: Allison Master, University of Washington; Non-Presenting Author: Sapna Cheryan, University of Washington; Non-Presenting Author: Andrew Meltzoff, University of Washington