Collective Threat for STEM Women Predicts Friendship and Academic Integration

[摘要] Members of stigmatized groups commonly confront collective threat: concerns that fellow group members;; stereotypic behavior may reflect negatively on one;;s group and, by extension, oneself. If other ingroup members threaten the group;;s reputation, individuals may hesitate to affiliate with and integrate these ingroup members into their social and professional network. Two social network studies investigated how women in male-dominated STEM majors respond to a female target who possessed either STEM-stereotypic or nonstereotypic interests. Compared with two control groups - men in STEM and women in female-dominated (non-STEM majors) - women in STEM showed less willingness to affiliate and work with the STEM-nonstereotypic (vs. STEM-stereotypic) target, and to introduce her to their closest friends, especially when participants identified strongly with their major or held a low-brokerage (i.e., less influential) position within their network. These behavioural patterns have implications for understanding psychological mechanisms that underlie persistent friendship homophily and segregation between groups.

[发布机构] University of Waterloo

[效力级别] friendship

[关键词] group processes;friendship;intergorup relations;Psychology