More women pick computer science if media nix outdated ‘nerd’ stereotype

washington.edu

In a second study, researchers asked male and female participants to read fabricated newspaper articles. One article claimed that computer science majors no longer fit those stereotypes, while the other article claimed they actually do reflect those stereotypes. The articles were identical except when claiming the field did – or did not – reflect the stereotypes. Students then rated their interest in computer science.

Men were unaffected by how computer science majors were represented, but women who read the article with non-stereotypical images were significantly more interested in majoring in computer science than women who read the article with gendered stereotypes.

I'm now curious why the men seemed indifferent to the stereotypes.

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