PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

More women pick computer science if media nix outdated 'nerd' stereotype

2013-06-26
(Press-News.org) Parents and teachers like to tell children they can be whatever they want to be when they grow up. But are there inaccurate stereotypes in the media that nudge them away from certain careers?

University of Washington psychologist Sapna Cheryan wanted to know if gendered stereotypes had any effect on young women's interest in becoming computer scientists. Specifically, she and colleagues studied whether the stereotypical view of the geeky male nerd so often portrayed in the media, most recently in CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," discouraged women from pursuing computer science degrees.

"These stereotypes are inconsistent with the female gender role, the qualities that are considered appropriate for women," said Cheryan, a UW assistant professor of psychology. "It's inconsistent with how many women see themselves and how they want others to see them."

Science, technology, engineering and math – the so-called STEM careers – are receiving a big educational push these days, yet women remain underrepresented in many of them, especially computer science. The question is: Are women just not interested in that field of work, or is something else keeping them away?

So, Cheryan and colleagues conducted two studies. First, they asked undergraduates from the UW and Stanford University to describe computer science majors.

They found students who were not computer science majors believed computer scientists to be intelligent but with poor social skills; they also perceived them as liking science fiction and spending hours playing video games. Some participants went so far as to describe computer scientists as thin, pale (from being inside all the time), and having poor hygiene.

"We were surprised to see the extent to which students were willing to say stereotypical things, and give us very specific descriptions. One student said computer science majors play 'World of Warcraft' all day long. And that's a very specific, and inaccurate, thing to say about a very large group of people," Cheryan said.

However, women who had taken at least one computer science class were less likely to mention a stereotypical characteristic. There was no difference in men's descriptions, whether or not they had taken a computer science class.

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.

"It doesn't take much to change these stereotypes. We gave them a very short article, and we were able to shift their thinking about computer science," Cheryan said of the female participants.

"Our message is not that the people in computer science need to change. It's a marketing issue. When students think of computer science, they think of all these stereotypes that are not accurate. If we could expose students to what computer scientists are really like and all the varied and interesting things they do, we can have a positive effect on participation in the field."

### Cheryan's research is published online in Sex Roles. Co-authors are Caitlin Handron from the UW, and Victoria C. Plaut and Lauren Hudson from the University of California, Berkeley. For more information, contact Cheryan at scheryan@uw.edu, or 206-612-9812.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

How men and women cooperate

2013-06-26
Cooperation is essential in any successful romantic relationship, but how men and women experience cooperation emotionally may be quite different, according to new research conducted at the University of Arizona. Ashley Randall, a post-doctoral research associate in the UA's John & Doris Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences and the UA's department of psychiatry, has been interested for some time in how romantic partners' emotions become coordinated with one another. For example, if someone comes home from work in a bad mood we know their partner's mood might plummet ...

Astronomers spy on galaxies in the raw

2013-06-26
A CSIRO radio telescope has detected the raw material for making the first stars in galaxies that formed when the Universe was just three billion years old — less than a quarter of its current age. This opens the way to studying how these early galaxies make their first stars. The telescope is CSIRO's Australia Telescope Compact Array telescope near Narrabri, NSW. "It one of very few telescopes in the world that can do such difficult work, because it is both extremely sensitive and can receive radio waves of the right wavelengths," says CSIRO astronomer Professor Ron ...

Climate tug of war disrupting Australian atmospheric circulation patterns

2013-06-26
Further evidence of climate change shifting atmospheric circulation in the southern Australian-New Zealand region has been identified in a new study. The study, in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, demonstrates that mid-latitude high pressure zones (30oS-45oS) are being pushed further into the Southern Ocean by rising global temperatures associated with greenhouse warming. This is despite more frequent occurrences of strong El Niños in recent decades, which should have drawn the high pressure zones in the opposite direction toward the equator. "What we are seeing," ...

Quantum engines must break down

2013-06-26
Our present understanding of thermodynamics is fundamentally incorrect if applied to small systems and needs to be modified, according to new research from University College London (UCL) and the University of Gdańsk. The work establishes new laws in the rapidly emerging field of quantum thermodynamics. The findings, published today in Nature Communications, have wide applications in small systems, from nanoscale engines and quantum technologies, to biological motors and systems found in the body. The laws of thermodynamics govern much of the world around us – ...

Research shows Vitamin D levels drop after pediatric heart surgery, increasing sickness

2013-06-26
OTTAWA, Canada—June 26, 2013—Until now, there has been no research dedicated to the importance of Vitamin D supplementation in children with congenital heart disease (CHD). However, over the past few years, researchers at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute and Cardiovascular Surgery Program teamed with the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group to understand the impact of cardiac surgery on the Vitamin D status of infants and children, to be printed next month in Anesthesiology. "The importance of Vitamin D levels and supplementation in ...

Sea level along Maryland's shorelines could rise 2 feet by 2050, according to new report

2013-06-26
ANNAPOLIS, MD (June 26, 2013)—A new report on sea level rise recommends that the State of Maryland should plan for a rise in sea level of as much as 2 feet by 2050. Led by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the report was prepared by a panel of scientific experts in response to Governor Martin O'Malley's Executive Order on Climate Change and "Coast Smart" Construction. The projections are based on an assessment of the latest climate change science and federal guidelines. "The State of Maryland is committed to taking the necessary actions to ...

Efficacy of acupressure to relieve migraine nausea presented at International Headache Congress

2013-06-26
Boston, MA, June 26, 2013 – Nausea is one of the most debilitating symptoms of migraine and affects 80 percent of migraine suffers in the United States. Leading headache physician, Dr. Zoltan Medgyessy of the Berolina Clinic in Lohne, Germany demonstrated in a trial that pressure to the P6 antiemetic point on the inner wrist with an acupressure wristband is an effective and quick therapy for relieving nausea of migraine sufferers. He will be presenting his findings to the U.S. for the first time at the International Headache Congress in Boston, MA on June 27 – 30, 2013. Migraine ...

Issue III registry defines best syncope candidates for cardiac pacing

2013-06-26
Athens, Greece 26 June 2013. Two important studies were released at the Late Breaking Clinical Trials session II at EHRA EUROPACE 2013. The PREFER AF study2 found that Oral anticoagulation is now used in over 85% of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) eligible for therapy. And ISSUE (the International Study on Syncope of Uncertain Aetiology) determined that cardiac pacing is more effective in patients with presumed neurally mediated syncope (NMS) and asystolic episodes in which tilt table testing proves negative (TT-), than in patients in which the tilt table testing ...

Patient suicide and homicide risk often missed say researchers

2013-06-26
The assessment of risk in patients who go on to die by suicide or commit homicide is often poor, a new study has found. A report by The University of Manchester's National Confidential Inquiry (NCI) into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness out today has raised concerns about the way that risk is assessed and led to criticism of the tick-box approach to clinical practice. Researchers looked at a sample of 81 cases where risk had been judged to be low, but seven days or less after the assessment the patient died by suicide or committed homicide, to retrospectively ...

Major rethink needed if chemical industry is to meet greenhouse gas targets

2013-06-26
The UK chemical industry requires 'an urgent and radical rethink' into how it produces chemicals if it is to play its part in meeting Government's stringent greenhouse gas emission reduction targets of 80% plus by 2050. That is one of the conclusions of a major new report issued today by the University of Manchester's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Entitled 'Can the UK afford (not) to produce chemicals in 2050?' the report was generated in collaboration with the North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) following investigations into chemical sector greenhouse ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New software tool could help better understand childhood cancer

Healthy lifestyle linked to lower diverticulitis risk, irrespective of genetic susceptibility

Women 65+ still at heightened risk of cervical cancer caused by HPV

‘Inflammatory’ diet during pregnancy may raise child’s diabetes type 1 risk

Effective therapies needed to halt rise in eco-anxiety, says psychology professor

Nature-friendly farming boosts biodiversity and yields but may require new subsidies

Against the odds: Endometriosis linked to four times higher pregnancy rates than other causes of infertility, new study reveals

Microplastics discovered in human reproductive fluids, new study reveals

Family ties and firm performance: How cousin marriage traditions shape informal businesses in Africa

Novel flu vaccine adjuvant improves protection against influenza viruses, study finds

Manipulation of light at the nanoscale helps advance biosensing

New mechanism discovered in ovarian cancer peritoneal metastasis: YWHAB restriction drives stemness and chemoresistance

New study links blood metabolites and immune cells to increased risk of urolithiasis

Pyruvate identified as a promising therapeutic agent for ulcerative colitis by targeting cytosolic phospholipase A2

New insights into the clinical impact of IKBKG mutations: Understanding the mechanisms behind rare immunodeficiency syndromes

Displays, imaging and sensing: New blue fluorophore breaks efficiency records in both solids and solutions

Sugar, the hidden thermostat in plants

Personality can explain why some CEOs earn higher salaries

This puzzle game shows kids how they’re smarter than AI

Study suggests remembrances of dead played role in rise of architecture in Andean region

Brain stimulation can boost math learning in people with weaker neural connections

Inhibiting enzyme could halt cell death in Parkinson’s disease, study finds

Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

UNDER EMBARGO: Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

Scientists target ‘molecular machine’ in the war against antimicrobial resistance

Extending classical CNOP method for deep-learning atmospheric and oceanic forecasting

Aston University research: Parents should encourage structure and independence around food to support children’s healthy eating

Thunderstorms are a major driver of tree death in tropical forests

Danforth Plant Science Center adds two new faculty members

Robotic eyes mimic human vision for superfast response to extreme lighting

[Press-News.org] More women pick computer science if media nix outdated 'nerd' stereotype