Organisational Behaviour, London Business School.
Strategy, Management, and Organisation, Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2018 Jul;115(1):54-75. doi: 10.1037/pspi0000130.
The current research investigates people's perceptions of others' lay theories (or mindsets), an understudied construct that we call meta-lay theories. Six studies examine whether underrepresented students' meta-lay theories influence their sense of belonging to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The studies tested whether underrepresented students who perceive their faculty as believing most students have high scientific aptitude (a universal metatheory) would report a stronger sense of belonging to STEM than those who think their faculty believe that not everyone has high scientific aptitude (a nonuniversal metatheory). Women PhD candidates in STEM fields who held universal rather than nonuniversal metatheories felt greater sense of belonging to their field, both when metatheories were measured (Study 1) and manipulated (Study 2). Undergraduates who held more universal metatheories reported a higher sense of belonging to STEM (Studies 3 and 4) and earned higher final course grades (Study 3). Experimental manipulations depicting a professor communicating the universal lay theory eliminated the difference between African American and European American students' attraction to a STEM course (Study 5) and between women and men's sense of belonging to STEM (Study 6). Mini meta-analyses indicated that the universal metatheory increases underrepresented students' sense of belonging to STEM, reduces the extent of social identity threat they experience, and reduces their perception of faculty as endorsing stereotypes. Across different underrepresented groups, types of institutions, areas of STEM, and points in the STEM pipeline, students' metaperceptions of faculty's lay theories about scientific aptitude influence their sense of belonging to STEM. (PsycINFO Database Record
当前的研究调查了人们对他人的外显理论（或思维模式）的看法，这是一个研究不足的构念，我们称之为元外显理论。六项研究考察了代表性不足的学生的元外显理论是否会影响他们对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的归属感。这些研究测试了代表性不足的学生，如果他们认为他们的教师认为大多数学生具有高科学能力（一种普遍的元理论），是否会比那些认为他们的教师认为并非每个人都具有高科学能力（一种非普遍的元理论）的学生更强烈地感受到对 STEM 的归属感。持有普遍元理论而不是非普遍元理论的 STEM 领域的女性博士生感到对自己的领域更有归属感，无论是在测量元理论时（研究 1）还是操纵元理论时（研究 2）。持有更普遍元理论的本科生报告对 STEM 的归属感更高（研究 3 和 4），并获得更高的期末课程成绩（研究 3）。实验性操纵描绘了一位教授传达普遍的外显理论，消除了非裔美国学生和欧洲裔美国学生对 STEM 课程的吸引力之间的差异（研究 5）以及女性和男性对 STEM 的归属感之间的差异（研究 6）。小型元分析表明，普遍的元理论增加了代表性不足的学生对 STEM 的归属感，减少了他们所经历的社会认同威胁的程度，并减少了他们对教师认可刻板印象的看法。在不同的代表性不足群体、机构类型、STEM 领域和 STEM 管道的不同阶段，学生对外显理论的元认知影响他们对 STEM 的归属感。
