Abstract
There is no doubt that connections with other people motivate behavior; yet science is stereotyped as being lonely work devoid of communal connections. Drawing from self-regulation of motivation and goal congruity theories, we ask, does relationship-building in science foster communal perceptions that then increase women’s persistence in and motivation for science research? In a scientific context designed to simulate a “typical” setting that emphasized gender and the male-dominated nature of STEM, women and men students interacted with a male confederate [Study 1 (N = 245)] or women students interacted with a female confederate [Study 2 (N = 152)]. In both cases, the student-confederate pair completed a series of getting-to-know-you questions to foster a relationship, engaged in a boring “data transcription” task together, and completed measures of communal goal perceptions, science research motivation, and belonging. We also assessed actual persistence on and future motivation for the science task. Across both studies, women’s communal perceptions significantly predicted belonging and science research motivation. In turn, science research motivation led to significantly greater persistence and future motivation and significantly mediated the link between communal perceptions and science persistence (Study 1). Results for belonging were mixed. Study 2 results provided a conceptual replication, extending the model to same-gender peer interactions. Overall results suggest peer relationship-building exercises are one pathway to help women feel a sense of community in science education. Focusing on creative strategies to retain women students in science will enhance science innovation and contribute to a more inclusive teaching and learning environment.
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Notes
Specifically, 41% of participants were recruited from the Mountain West university and 59% were recruited from the Midwestern university. Seven participants were excluded for reporting suspicion of the experimental procedures (N = 3) or failing the attention check (N = 4).
We compared this proposed model with an alternative model which included perceptions of the agentic value of research, in addition to communal value, to see whether our effects hold when accounting for the influence of perceiving research as having agentic value on science research motivation separately (see Online Supplement).
We also measured state anxiety, confederate perceptions, science domain identification, and future science motivation.
As in Study 1, we tested an alternate model, including agentic value in addition to communal value, to see whether our effects held if the influence of perceiving research as having agentic value’s influence on science research motivation is separately accounted for (see Online Supplement).
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Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the research teams from MAD Lab (Montana State University), DREAM Lab (University of North Florida), and SOAR Lab (Drake University) for their assistance with data collection. We also thank Dustin Thoman, Curtis Phills, and Sarah Ainsworth for feedback on study development and previous drafts of the manuscript.
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Allen, J., Brown, E.R., Ginther, A. et al. Nevertheless, she persisted (in science research): Enhancing women students’ science research motivation and belonging through communal goals. Soc Psychol Educ 24, 939–964 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09639-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09639-6