They’re comparing me to her: Social comparison perceptions reduce belonging and STEM engagement among women with token status

Abstract

Belonging and academic engagement are important predictors of women’s retention in STEM. To better understand the processes influencing these outcomes, we investigate how numerical underrepresentation (i.e., token status) triggers social comparison perceptions – concerns that others are comparing oneself to another person – that can undermine women’s STEM outcomes. Across four experiments, female college students recruited via subject pool (Study 1a) and MTurk (Studies 1b-3) read a hypothetical scenario in which another female (Studies 1a-3) or male student (Study 2) performed well or poorly in an engineering course. Findings showed that having token (versus non-token) status in the course increased social comparison perceptions (i.e., perceptions about being compared to an ingroup peer), which subsequently reduced course belonging (Studies 1a-1b). Study 2 found that (a) token status increased social comparison perceptions in response to the ingroup (versus outgroup) peer, and (b) social comparison perceptions decreased belonging through stereotype threat concerns, particularly when the peer performed poorly. Study 3 directly manipulated social comparison perceptions to further establish their causal role on negative outcomes and demonstrated that these perceived direct comparisons predicted additional consequences signaling STEM disengagement. Collectively, findings identify a novel process that can diminish belonging and academic engagement for women in STEM. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ’s website.