The media is full of eccentric person stereotypes , everywhere from Big Bang Theory toepisodes of CSI and NCIS . These image of geeks as antisocial , unfledged dorks may seem harmless — but a new study evoke these medium images help keep women out of computer skill .
https://gizmodo.com/the-unbelievable-wretchedness-of-mainstream-tvs-nerd-e-5974830
A team of researchers at University of Washington decided to find oneself out how media representations of eccentric person impact woman ’s interest in the computer field . Previous studies have shown that a lot of women stick away from estimator and other technical fields because they perceive them as being only for a certain case of man . One 2011 studyfound that fair sex who were exposed to life history of female engineers had a more positive attitude towards math than women who only date biographies of male engineers .
But tv set show and movies like Revenge of the Nerds andBig Bang Theorymay help convert charwoman that information processing system science ( and other STEM fields ) are only for men who have a fussy personality character , or belong to to a special subculture . As the UW researcher write in their paper , both human and cleaning woman believe that a estimator scientist is “ a genius male computer hacker who spends a outstanding passel of sentence alone on the calculator , has an short social animation , and enjoys hobbies involving science fable . ”
https://gizmodo.com/the-big-bang-theory-asks-the-preposterous-question-wh-5973907
They write :
Unfortunately , the people in STEM careers are often depicted in a highly unimaginative personal manner ( Kendall 1999 ; Schibeci 1986 ; see also Steinke 2005 ) . Movies such as Revenge of the Nerds , Weird Science , and WarGames promoted the paradigm of the “ computing machine nerd ” during the 1980s ( Barker and Aspray 2006 ; Schott and Selwyn 2000 ) , coinciding with the beginning of the downslope in the balance of woman pursuing information processing system scientific discipline in the U.S. ( National Science Foundation 2002 ) . More recently , CBS ’s popular television show The Big Bang Theory , presently in its 6th time of year , profiles graduate students in natural philosophy and applied science who look and work in ways coherent with estimator skill stereotype . These mass medium representation are especially distressing considering that children cover that television , movies , and magazines constitute their primary seed of entropy about what scientists are like ( Fort and Varney 1989 ; Steinke et al . 2007 ) . Such medium depictions may stimulate students to believe that these characteristics are not only distinctive but even required of people in the field . As a result , bookman who do not fit the current stereotypes may be discouraged from developing an interest in these field of honor .
In the first part of the UW study , Sapna Cheryan and her squad set out to survey the prevailing epitome of computer scientists among students at UW and Stanford . And they chance a high-pitched percentage of both manful and female educatee believe that computer scientists are manlike , ghost with computers , asocial or isolated , or “ sick , thin [ and ] unattractive . ” And that computer scientist “ play WoW all day long . ” Interestingly , women who had hold even just one computer scientific discipline category were much less potential to think in these stereotype .
Of course , it ’s worth name that Cheryan and her team chunk in attribute like “ level-headed ” and “ extremely focused on computers ” with the other stereotypes — and at times , reading the Cheryan study , you get the impression that the researchers believe that the perceptual experience that computer scientists are too focused on computers , or that they “ dream in code , ” might be part of what keep women off . Whereas , you might remember being highly focused on computers would be a suitable quality in a information processing system scientist , no matter of grammatical gender or other habits .
In any face , the second part of the UW study , Cheryan separate the students at random into two groups . The first grouping understand a newspaper article , ostensibly from USA Today , which said that computer scientist uphold to be “ geek ” stereotype . The second grouping read an article which pronounce that those stereotype no longer apply .
And even though those were fairly unretentive article , they had an impact , especially among the female national . The women who read the article that demolish the “ geek ” stereotypes were much more potential to agree powerfully with the statement , “ I have considered majoring in information processing system scientific discipline . ” See for yourself :
I ’m not totally sure it ’s a bad thing for char to think that computer scientists are “ geek ” — or that computer scientists like Star Trek . Ideally , what we should be doing is making certain everybody knows that adult female can like Star Trek too , not promote the idea that computer scientist do n’t like Star Trek . ( Ina previous study , Cheryan and her team showed women two data processor science classrooms : one with flake gear such as a Star Trek poster , one without . Women were more interested in computing machine science after seeing the more indifferent schoolroom . )
But at the same time , the stereotype in Big Bang Theory and “ special nerd episode ” of police procedural shows go beyond like Star Trek — and it ’s boost that women who had ingest just one data processor science year did n’t believe the stereotype . This subject definitely provides another good reason to be annoyed at the geek stereotype in aggregated medium , because they ’re keeping forth overbold , talented people away from technical field of study .
you may read the paper “ The Stereotypical Computer Scientist : Gendered Media Representations as a Barrier to Inclusion for Women ” in the journalSex Roles .
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