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1. Women drive efforts to highlight concealable stigmatized identities in U.S. academic science and engineering

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287795  

   Busch, Carly A.; Cooper, Katelyn M.; Brownell, Sara E. (July 2023, PLOS ONE)

   Fontanesi, Lilybeth (Ed.)

   Concealable stigmatized identities (CSIs) are hidden identities that carry negative stereotypes and can result in a loss of social status if revealed. Instructors often choose to conceal these CSIs due to anticipated negative student reactions, yet revealing CSIs can have a positive impact on undergraduates. Women are generally more likely to reveal personal aspects about themselves in social situations, but may face greater consequences for revealing a stigmatized identity to students given their already marginalized position in academic science and engineering. Therefore, in this study, we were interested in understanding to what extent there are differences between men and women science and engineering instructors in (i) the representation of CSIs, (ii) their decisions to reveal CSIs to undergraduates in their classes, and (iii) their perceived stigma of CSIs. Based on a national survey of over 2,000 instructors in science and engineering from very high research activity doctoral institutions, we found that women were more likely than men to report having depression, anxiety, or a disability. Of instructors who held CSIs, women had 1.5x higher odds than men of revealing their CSIs to some undergraduates compared to no undergraduates and perceived greater stigma associated with all CSIs. Despite perceiving greater stigma associated with concealable stigmatized identities, women are more likely to reveal their CSIs to college science and engineering students, leading the way to a more diverse and inclusive scientific community by demonstrating themselves as role models for these identities. 

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2. Effects of Astrobiology Lectures on Knowledge and Attitudes about Science in Incarcerated Populations

   https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1089/ast.2019.2209  

   Nadkarni, N. M. (May 2020, Astrobiology)

   The incarcerated population has little or no access to science education programs, STEM resources, or sci-entists. We explored the effects of a low-cost, potentially high-impact informal science education program that enabled NASA scientists to provide astrobiology lectures to adults inside 16 correctional institutions in three states. Post- versus pre-lecture surveys suggest that presentations significantly increased science content knowledge, positively shifted attitudes about science and scientists, increased a sense of science self-identity, and enhanced behavioral intentions about communicating science. These were significant across ethnicity, gender, education level, and institution type, size, location, and state. Men scored higher than women on pre-lecture survey questions. Among men, participants with greater levels of education and White non-Hispanics scored higher than those with less educational attainment and African American and other minority participants. Increases in science content knowledge were greater for women than men and, among men, for those with lower levels of education and African American participants. Women increased more in science identity than did men. Thus, even limited exposure to voluntary, non-credit science lectures delivered by scientists can be an effective way to broker a relationship to science for this underserved public group and can potentially serve as a step to broaden participation in science. 

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3. Sex Differences in Mate Preferences Across 45 Countries: A Large-Scale Replication

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620904154  

   Walter, Kathryn V.; Conroy-Beam, Daniel; Buss, David M.; Asao, Kelly; Sorokowska, Agnieszka; Sorokowski, Piotr; Aavik, Toivo; Akello, Grace; Alhabahba, Mohammad Madallh; Alm, Charlotte; et al (April 2020, Psychological Science)

   Considerable research has examined human mate preferences across cultures, finding universal sex differences in preferences for attractiveness and resources as well as sources of systematic cultural variation. Two competing perspectives—an evolutionary psychological perspective and a biosocial role perspective—offer alternative explanations for these findings. However, the original data on which each perspective relies are decades old, and the literature is fraught with conflicting methods, analyses, results, and conclusions. Using a new 45-country sample ( N = 14,399), we attempted to replicate classic studies and test both the evolutionary and biosocial role perspectives. Support for universal sex differences in preferences remains robust: Men, more than women, prefer attractive, young mates, and women, more than men, prefer older mates with financial prospects. Cross-culturally, both sexes have mates closer to their own ages as gender equality increases. Beyond age of partner, neither pathogen prevalence nor gender equality robustly predicted sex differences or preferences across countries. 

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4. Gender/Sex Categories and Gendered Cues in People Perception: The Influence of Gender/Sex Ratio and Gendered Appearance on Group Judgments

   https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2024.42.2.112  

   Alt, Nicholas P; Dayley, Pamala N; Faulkner, Anna G; Johnson, Kerri L (April 2024, Social Cognition)

   Previous findings on people perception show that perceivers are attuned to the social categories of group members, which subsequently influences social judgments. An outstanding question is whether perceivers are also attuned to visual cue variability (e.g., gender typicality). In two studies (n = 165), perceivers viewed 12-person ensembles (500 ms) of varying White men-to-women ratios. Importantly, faces of one gender/sex were morphed to appear either more masculine or more feminine. Consistent with prior work, results indicated that judgments varied by the actual gender/sex ratio. In addition, perceivers' judgments varied as a function of manipulated gender cues. Ensembles composed of masculine, compared to feminine White men, were judged to have more men, higher perceived masculinity, and to be more threatening. Complementary results were found for ensembles composed of feminine, compared to masculine White women. These findings highlight the impact of both social categories and visual phenotypic cue variability on people perception. 

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5. User Preferences for Interdependent Privacy Preservation Strategies in Social Media

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3610062  

   Necaise, Aaron; Tanni, Tangila Islam; Williams, Aneka; Solihin, Yan; Kapadia, Apu; Amon, Mary Jean (September 2023, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction)

   Interdependent privacy (IDP) violations occur when users share personal information about others without permission, resulting in potential embarrassment, reputation loss, or harassment. There are several strategies that can be applied to protect IDP, but little is known regarding how social media users perceive IDP threats or how they prefer to respond to them. We utilized a mixed-method approach with a replication study to examine user beliefs about various government-, platform-, and user-level strategies for managing IDP violations. Participants reported that IDP represented a 'serious' online threat, and identified themselves as primarily responsible for responding to violations. IDP strategies that felt more familiar and provided greater perceived control over violations (e.g., flagging, blocking, unfriending) were rated as more effective than platform or government driven interventions. Furthermore, we found users were more willing to share on social media if they perceived their interactions as protected. Findings are discussed in relation to control paradox theory. 

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