Early Assessment Program (EAP) English and Math Assessments
Category: Pathways to and Through Postsecondary
Implicit stereotypes about gender and STEM may unconsciously shape students' academic choices and contribute to gender gaps in major choice, but there is limited economic evidence on this channel. To study this relationship, we administer a gender-science Implicit Association Test (IAT) to a sample of primarily first-semester undergraduates, and link results to original survey data and administrative transcript data. On average, students in our sample implicitly associate men with STEM and women with humanities, with no differences by student gender. Our key finding is that implicit stereotypes are strongly predictive of behavior. Male students with a one standard deviation higher male-science association are 7-9 ppt more likely to intend to major in STEM, while female students are 8-10 ppt less likely. We find similar relationships between implicit stereotypes and observed STEM course-taking and officially declared major. These patterns are robust to controls for expected earnings, preferences for major characteristics such as salary and job flexibility, presence of female role models, and explicit beliefs about women in STEM and humanities. Our results suggest that implicit stereotypes may be a promising focus for interventions targeting gender gaps.
Keywords
STEM, Stereotypes, College Major, Gender
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/82yv-y393
