Grand Text Auto

We have published a new article in Psychology of Women Quarterly! The article describes a set of studies that examined the influence of gender on how individuals make emotional attributions. Specifically, we had participants read a narrative about a female character dealing with negative emotions such as anxiety or doubt in the context of a STEM class. We then asked the participants why the character was feeling those emotions. Across three studies as well as an internal meta-analysis that examined the pattern across the studies, we found that men and women sometimes differ in the way they make attributions in this context. The male participants were more likely than the female participants to think that our female character felt anxiety and doubt in her STEM class because she was not adequately prepared. On the other hand, the female participants were more likely than the male participants to think that our female character felt anxiety and doubt because of the effects of stereotype threat and awareness of bias.

Our new article in Psychology of Women Quarterly describes a set of studies that examined the influence of gender on how individuals make emotional attributions. Specifically, we had participants read a narrative about a female character dealing with negative emotions such as anxiety or doubt in the context of a STEM class. We then asked the participants why the character was feeling those emotions. Across three studies as well as an internal meta-analysis that examined the pattern across the studies, we found that men and women sometimes differ in the way they make attributions in this context. The male participants were more likely than the female participants to think that our female character felt anxiety and doubt in her STEM class because she was not adequately prepared. On the other hand, the female participants were more likely than the male participants to think that our female character felt anxiety and doubt because of the effects of stereotype threat and awareness of bias.

Although much of our research at Tiltfactor aims to increase the representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), our work also shines a light on the importance of the liberal arts. The students who work at Tiltfactor come from a broad range of majors–from computer science to studio art to psychology–and it is through this intersection of STEM, humanities, and social sciences that we are able to create and study games that can foster social change.

Although much of our research at Tiltfactor aims to increase the representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), our work also shines a light on the importance of the liberal arts. The students who work at Tiltfactor come from a broad range of majors–from computer science to studio art to psychology–and it is through this intersection of STEM, humanities, and social sciences that we are able to create and study games that can foster social change.

We are excited to report that we have a new paper out! Published in Social and Personality Psychology Compass, our paper describes the potential of games as methods in social and personality psychology. We review the ways that games have been used in the past and provide a primer for researchers interested in making their own games for use in the psychology lab.

Freedman, G., & Flanagan, M. (2017). From dictators to avatars: Furthering social and personality psychology through game methods. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, e12368. doi: 10.1111/spc3.12368

Gordon, W. J. (1907). Round about the North Pole.

Max and I recently had the opportunity to talk to Barnard students in Stephanie Pfirman’s Exploring the Poles first year seminar about how games can be used as tools for effective communication.

To start things off, Max introduced Buffalo, and the students played for ten minutes. From our vantage point, it looked like there was fierce competition.

This past week, I attended and presented three posters at the annual Society for Personality and Social Psychology conference in San Antonio, Texas. The conference began for me with the Intervention Science Preconference, which made its SPSP debut. The day was filled with talks about how we can harness social psychology to create interventions to benefit society. Some of the highlights included listening to Dr. Mikki Hebl talking about her work on sexism, Dr. Betsy Levy Paluck discussing her research on creating anti-conflict interventions for adolescents, and Dr. Stephanie Fryberg describing her work with the newly founded school for the Tulalip tribes. During the poster session, I presented two of our studies on climate change to the other preconference attendees. At the main conference, I presented a poster on our work on gender bias in understanding STEM narratives as well as a poster on how relationship beliefs impact the way people think about ending relationships. Overall, it was an excellent conference and getting to hear about the current research in the field was invigorating.