Very exciting to be chatting with Professor Chad Forbes about how to improve gender and race diversity in STEM! He’ll tell us about his social neuroscience research on how stereotype threat affects women and minorities in science.
Join us for a STEM Women HOA as we speak to Professor Chad Forbes about stereotype threat and its impact on women and minorities in STEM. Chad is a Social Neuroscientist who uses electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and other tools to research the impact of negative stereotypes on individuals.
Research shows that girls and boys perform similarly well on maths and other aptitude tests in early schooling. The same goes for minority groups. But because society constantly produces stereotypes such as “girls aren’t good at maths” and “people of colour can’t succeed in science,” some youth internalise this and their confidence is undermined. In experiments, reminding individuals about their minority status leads to a poor test result in comparison to people who aren’t primed about stereotypes. Chad’s research identifies how stereotypes affect motivation and memory, as well as other biases.
Chad will explain how stereotypes may impact on the “leaky pipeline,” where girls and minorities drop out of STEM careers. We’ll also tackle how to combat stereotype threat.
Read more about Chad’s research and download some of his scientific articles. Learn about his ongoing research into women in STEM.
I’ll be co-hosting this event on Sunday 17th Aug at 2.30 PM Pacific or 10.30PM UK/ Monday 18th 7.30 AM AUS.
The hangout will be available for viewing on our YouTube channel after the event: http://www.youtube.com/stemwomen
The Other Sociologist 