A psychological intervention strengthens students’ peer social networks and promotes persistence in STEM
This talk will explore whether and how one social-psychological intervention, termed affirmation intervention, affects students’ social networks and promoted retention in STEM. Retaining students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is critical as demand for STEM graduates increases. Whereas many approaches to improve persistence target individuals’ internal beliefs, skills, and traits, the intervention in this experiment strengthened students...
The Political Meaning of Whiteness for Liberals and Conservatives
This study examines new open-ended and closed-ended survey responses among white liberals and conservatives in the U.S. to assess the role they think their racial group membership plays in how they think about politics. It then uses insights from those responses to develop and test a new measure designed to capture how white identity operates politically. To date, much political science research on white racial identity documents the links between white identity and right-leaning candidate and...
Abstract: Reversing course from a long tradition of studying racial antipathy, I argue that racial sympathy, defined as white distress over black misfortune, shapes public opinion among a nontrivial subset of white Americans. Using an original measure – the racial sympathy index – I find that sympathy motivates support for policies perceived to benefit, as well as opposition to policies to perceived to harm, African Americans. Racial sympathy is distinct from a more general sympathy, as it does not shape opinion related to other groups. The concept is foremost a racial attitude; as evidence... Read more about Jennifer Chudy, Wellesley College
