Who encourages Latina women to feel a sense of identity-safety in STEM environments?

Publication date: September 2019Source: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 84Author(s): Evava S. Pietri, Montana L. Drawbaugh, Arielle N. Lewis, India R. JohnsonAbstractLatinas are among the least represented groups in STEM and, thus, may have concerns about not belonging or feeling welcome in STEM environments. Identity-safe cues (i.e., scientists with shared identities), may address this issue and encourage Latinas' belonging and interest in STEM. To examine this possibility, in the first study, we presented Latina women with a fictional STEM company and a scientist working at the company who was either Latino/a or a non-Latino/a White man or woman. We found that compared to those in the White man or woman scientist conditions, participants in the Latino/a scientist conditions believed the scientist had faced comparable adversity to themselves, identified more strongly with the scientist, and reported higher trust and belonging and attraction to the STEM company. Using the findings from Study 1 to inform a new intervention, in the second study we presented Latina high school students with a panel of Latina scientists. Relative to before the panel, the students reported enhanced feelings of trust and belonging in STEM after the panel. Exploratory analyses further revealed that among Latina students who did not already intend to pursue a career in STEM, the panel encouraged their interest in the sciences. Across both studies, we found that believing the scienti...
Source: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research