Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations Beyond Broadening Participation (2023) / Chapter Skim
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6 The Gatekeepers of STEMM: How Individual Bias and Inequality Persist and How STEMM Professionals Can Help
6 The Gatekeepers of STEMM: How Individual Bias and Inequality Persist and How STEMM Professionals Can Help
Pages 165-198
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From page 165... ...
Like the previous chapter, the current chapter addresses the charge in the statement of task on reviewing the research and evidence on the ways in which racism at the individual level impedes STEMM careers for minoritized individuals. Here, the committee also addresses the charge to identify methods of improving recruitment, retention, and advancement.
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From page 166... ...
Racial bias is not only more automatic, but also more ambivalent and ambiguous than most people think, which means that individuals, including gatekeepers, cannot monitor their own bias and will unwittingly perpetuate it. Finally, gatekeepers hold social motives that keep the White status quo of gatekeeping intact.
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From page 167... ...
They can directly shape minoritized individuals' ability to access, be included, and thrive in STEMM, as they define the skills, identities, and values necessary for minoritized individuals to persist (Estrada et al., 2011)
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From page 168... ...
, and Chapter 3 provides detailed figures on racial disparities in STEMM contexts. The section below is meant to complement these chapters by providing additional analysis of White advantage in STEMM from the perspective of the psychological literature at the individual and interpersonal levels (gatekeepers)
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From page 169... ...
For example, White gatekeepers may frame local cultural "fit" in terms such as "requires brilliance" or "innate/fixed talent" that alienate, discourage, and undermine minoritized individuals who aspire to that career (Chestnut et al., 2018; Muradoglu et al., 2022; Storage et al., 2016)
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. As other chapters show, discrimination occurs in everyday interactions, including within STEMM organizations.
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From page 171... ...
Research focused on bias toward Black Americans has shown that forms of overt bias include, expressed outward hostility and degradation, beliefs that minoritized individuals are unintelligent and criminal, a general overall negative "feeling thermometer" about Black individuals, and support for formal forms of racial discrimination (Henry and Sears, 2002)
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From page 172... ...
. Studies have demonstrated that overt, subhuman racist epithets and metaphors that liken Black individuals to primates are also found in police dispatch tapes and newspaper crime reports (Goff et al., 2008)
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Symbolic racism, a related form of modern racism, occurs when members of the dominant racial group hold what seem like cohesive beliefs, but their beliefs are actually informed by underlying bias. Empirically, their attitudes stem from anti-Black sentiment such as Black individuals are
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From page 174... ...
. Furthermore, these experiences of microaggressions act as a major barrier because they reduce minoritized individuals' sense of belonging within STEMM contexts (Miles et al., 2020; Smith et al., 2022)
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To counter racism in STEMM, systemic accountability at the organizational level will be essential. Automatic Category Detection and Implicit Associations The following research will show that ordinary individual racial bias is more automatic than most people think.
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. Decades of research using the IAT have demonstrated a substantial prevalence of implicit bias against Black individuals, such that White individuals on average associate their own group labels (White, European-American)
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, and this is true for STEMM educators and professionals. Ambivalent, Plausibly Deniable Biases Research shows that ordinary individual racial bias is more ambivalent than most people think.
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, solid light-gray lines indicate the weighted monthly means from observed data, dotted black lines within the light-gray areas indicate the means of the ARIMA forecasts, light-gray areas indicate 80 percent confidence intervals (CIs) , and dark-gray areas indicate 95% CIs of the ARIMA forecasts.
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From page 179... ...
The larger context can monitor them better than they can monitor themselves. 2 More of a puzzle is an adult sample's report that Black Americans are viewed neutrally on warmth and competence, likely a deliberately careful response, given other measures of racial attitudes and the sensitive nature of expressing opinions on racism (Kervyn et al., 2015)
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. When White gatekeepers opt to choose others similar to self, they are not necessarily displaying hostility to minoritized individuals, but perhaps comfort with other ingroup White individuals.
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From page 181... ...
The perpetual minoritization of Black, Indigenous, and Latine students, faculty, professionals implies that something is amiss. GATEKEEPERS' SOCIAL MOTIVES TO PRESERVE THE STATUS QUO This section reviews literature demonstrating that gatekeepers tend to possess several social motives that enable the preservation the status quo of gatekeeping (i.e., that most gatekeepers tend to be White)
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From page 182... ...
For example, this sentiment may include the belief that "advancing diversity is the right thing to do." Instrumental justification correlates with academic settings that show greater racial disparities. Instrumentality sends the message to minoritized individuals that now they are welcome only because they are useful -- not because equitable belonging is the right way to treat another human.
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From page 183... ...
It is an individual-level difference in the preference for group-based hierarchy and inequality, and individuals who have higher levels of social dominance orientation tend to make decisions and judgments that serve to protect the status quo (Ho et al., 2020; Pratto et al., 1994)
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. Individual differences in social dominance orientation therefore predicts which STEMM gatekeepers will be open to leveling the playing field and which will favor hierarchies.
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. Esteeming and Trusting as Meta-Perceptions Besides motivated cognition that reflects understanding and control in favor of the status quo, gatekeepers seek esteem in the form of respect and appreciation.
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Taking these perceptions together, White individuals and minoritized individuals during interracial interactions may have different impression management goals stemming from their meta-perceptions (Fiske et al., 2015)
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As such, cues signaling these demographic shifts can inform individual- and interpersonal-level outcomes among gatekeepers. Even while minoritized individuals remain severely underrepresented across multiple STEMM contexts, the United States is experiencing a massive demographic shift (see Chapter 3 for more on this)
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From page 188... ...
These factors contribute to advantage gatekeepers and disadvantage minoritized individuals, their position challenges the gatekeepers' proclivity to notice, let alone remedy racism in STEMM. Furthermore, additional research demonstrated demographic shifts occurring in the United States, specifically perceptions of the "majority-minority" shift, may be perceived as a potential threat to the preservation of the status quo, and a source of anxiety around this possible loss in power and status.
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From page 189... ...
The essence of the recommendation for this chapter involves generating systems of accountability at the organizational level, above gatekeepers, that can help identify behavioral patterns of individual gatekeepers. In turn, understanding and identifying behavioral patterns may shed light on potential patterns of bias, which can be helpful for initiating top-down change to improve conditions for minoritized individuals.
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. White and minority demographic shifts, intergroup threat, and right-wing extremism. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 94.
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Handbook of Social Psychology, 3(3)
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stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competi tion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 878–902.
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. The nature of social dominance orientation: Theorizing and measuring preferences for intergroup inequality using the new SDO₇ scale. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(6)
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. In genes we trust: The biological component of psychological essentialism and its relationship to mechanisms of motivated social cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(4)
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. The strate gic pursuit of moral credentials. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(3)
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. Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(4)
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. Interracial interactions: A relational approach. Ad vances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 121–181.
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. Right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and preju dice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(1)
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