Microinclusions: Treating women as respected work partners increases a sense of fit in technology companies.

When people enter new work settings, we theorized that they are vulnerable to questioning whether they will be received in ways that allow them to contribute to shared goals. If so, treatment that clarifies the stance that others take toward the self, which we call microinclusions, that convey a receptivity and supportiveness to one's contributions may bolster a sense of fit. Further, in examining this question in technology contexts, we theorized that such microinclusions may be particularly impactful for women for whom underrepresentation and negative stereotypes make opportunities to contribute especially fraught. Four primary experiments (N = 1,861, Nwomen in STEM = 1,430) tested this theorizing. In Experiment 1, both men and women at a large technology company anticipated greater fit in a work group described with microinclusions, yet this effect was greatest for women. Experiments 2-4 replicated this effect among women science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals and college students considering a career in technology and showed that women's anticipated fit arose over and beyond socially warm treatment (Experiment 2); arose more when the microinclusion came from a man (vs. another woman; Experiment 3); and arose even when observing another woman receive a microinclusion (Experiment 4). Microinclusions also increased women's commitment to the company (Experiments 2 and 4) and reduced their anticipated experience of stereotype threat (Experiment 3). This research highlights the ambiguity women face in technology settings about whether they will be received in ways that allow them to contribute to shared work goals and the importance of treatment from coworkers that affirms this opportunity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Wise interventions consider the person and the situation together.

Chater & Loewenstein (C&L) ignore the long history by which social scientists have developed more nuanced and ultimately more helpful ways to understand the relationship between persons and situations. This tradition is reflected and advanced in a large literature on "wise" social-psychological or mindset interventions, which C&L do not discuss yet mischaracterize.

Where and with whom does a brief social-belonging intervention promote progress in college?

A promising way to mitigate inequality is by addressing students' worries about belonging. But where and with whom is this social-belonging intervention effective? Here we report a team-science randomized controlled experiment with 26,911 students at 22 diverse institutions. Results showed that the social-belonging intervention, administered online before college (in under 30 minutes), increased the rate at which students completed the first year as full-time students, especially among students in groups that had historically progressed at lower rates. The college context also mattered: The intervention was effective only when students' groups were afforded opportunities to belong. This study develops methods for understanding how student identities and contexts interact with interventions. It also shows that a low-cost, scalable intervention generalizes its effects to 749 4-year institutions in the United States.

Does "Jamal" receive a harsher sentence than "James"? First-name bias in the criminal sentencing of Black men.

OBJECTIVE: Using archival and experimental methods, we tested the role that racial associations of first names play in criminal sentencing. HYPOTHESES: We hypothesized that Black defendants with more stereotypically Black names (e.g., Jamal) would receive more punitive sentences than Black defendants with more stereotypically White names (e.g., James). METHOD: In an archival study, we obtained a random sample of 296 real-world records of Black male prison inmates in Florida and asked participants to rate the extent to which each inmate's first name was stereotypically Black or stereotypically White. We then tested the extent to which racial stereotypicality was associated with sentence length, controlling for relevant legal features of each case (e.g., criminal record, severity of convicted offenses). In a follow-up experiment, participant judges assigned sentences in cases in which the Black male defendant was randomly assigned a more stereotypically Black or White name from our archival study. RESULTS: Controlling for a wide array of factors-including criminal record-we found that inmates with more stereotypically Black versus White first names received longer sentences ß = 0.09, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) [0.01, 0.16]: 409 days longer for names 1 standard deviation above versus below the mean on racial stereotypicality. In our experiment, participant judges recommended significantly longer sentences to Black inmates with more stereotypically Black names above and beyond the severity of the charges or their criminal history, ß = 0.07, 95% CI [0.02, 0.13]. CONCLUSIONS: Our results identify how racial associations with first names can bias consequential sentencing decisions despite the impartial aims of the legal system. More broadly, our findings illustrate how racial biases manifest in distinctions made among members of historically marginalized groups, not just between members of different groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Egalitarian norm messaging increases human resources professionals' salary offers to women.

Across the globe, men make markedly more money than women, even within the same position. We introduce egalitarian norm messaging as a potential intervention to increase women's salaries and counter the gender pay gap. In two preregistered experiments with seasoned professionals (N = 435, work experience: M > 8 years, salary negotiations: M > 18 per year), we find a significant gender pay bias-Human Resources (HR) experts offered markedly lower salaries in an online negotiation to (simulated) female versus male candidates with identical qualifications. Moreover, the experiments show that dynamic (Experiments 1a and 2), as well as static egalitarian norm messages (Experiment 1a), increased salary offers to women. Exploratory mediation analyses suggest that the dynamic egalitarian norm effect was driven by HR professionals' feeling of working toward a shared goal of greater equity. A message that merely increased awareness of the pay gap did not elicit this feeling and did not significantly increase salary offers to women but resulted in fairly equal treatment of men and women (Experiment 2). While the egalitarian norm intervention significantly increased salary offers to women, it also unexpectedly reduced offers to men, thereby reversing the gender bias (Experiment 2). We discuss the theoretical contribution with regard to gender pay bias and egalitarian norm interventions, as well as applied implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Social norms govern what behaviors come to mind-And what do not.

It is well known that norms influence behavior. Beyond simply shaping what people do, we argue that norms constrain what behaviors even come to mind as options, effectively excluding counternormative behaviors from consideration. We test this hypothesis across five primary and multiple supplementary studies using diverse methods (Ntotal = 5,488). In Study 1, people reported that behaviors that were counternormative in a situation, even behaviors that could satisfy a motivational drive, were far less likely to come to mind and less desirable than behaviors that were norm-consistent. Going beyond self-report measures, Studies 2a-2c found that people even misrepresented norm-violating behaviors as "impossible," suggesting they are not considered. Using a change-blindness paradigm, Study 3 found that people were less likely to track changes in goal-relevant objects that would be counternormative (vs. normative) to engage with. Studies 4 and 5 explored implications for problems of temptation and self-control. Study 4 found that members of a clinical population striving to eat healthier reported that the very same unhealthy but tasty food items would be less tempting and would trigger less self-control conflict if they encountered the food in a context where its consumption would be counternormative (vs. normative). Study 5, a field study, shows that introducing a norm prohibiting laptop use in class reduced students' temptation to multitask (as well as actual multitasking) over the term, whereas encouraging individual self-control did not. Discussion addresses how norms can be harnessed to lighten the burdens of temptations and help people achieve their goals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

A scalable empathic-mindset intervention reduces group disparities in school suspensions.

Suspensions remove students from the learning environment at high rates throughout the United States. Policy and theory highlight social groups that face disproportionately high suspension rates-racial-minoritized students, students with a prior suspension, and students with disabilities. We used an active placebo-controlled, longitudinal field experiment (Nteachers = 66, Nstudents = 5822) to test a scalable "empathic-mindset" intervention, a 45- to 70-min online exercise to refocus middle school teachers on understanding and valuing the perspectives of students and on sustaining positive relationships even when students misbehave. In preregistered analyses, this exercise reduced suspension rates especially for Black and Hispanic students, cutting the racial disparity over the school year from 10.6 to 5.9 percentage points, a 45% reduction. Significant reductions were also observed for other groups of concern. Moreover, reductions persisted through the next year when students interacted with different teachers, suggesting that empathic treatment with even one teacher in a critical period can improve students' trajectories through school.

A threatening opportunity: The prospect of conversations about race-related experiences between Black and White friends.

Similarities are foundational to building and maintaining friendships, but for cross-race friends, differences in experiences related to race are also inevitable. Little is known about how friends approach talking about race-related experiences. We suggest that these conversations are a threatening opportunity. Across five studies, we show that they can enhance closeness and intergroup learning among Black and White friends but that these benefits can be accompanied, and sometimes prevented by identity threat. In Study 1, Black (N = 57) and White (N = 59) adults anticipated both benefits and risks of such conversations, though more benefits than risks. In Study 2A (N = 143) and Study 2B (N = 149), Black participants reported less willingness to disclose race-related experiences to extant White friends than Black friends and anticipated feeling less comfortable doing so, controlling for closeness. However, they also desired to be understood by Black and White friends equally. In Study 3 (N = 147) and Study 4 (N = 172), White participants also felt less comfortable when an imagined Black friend disclosed race-related versus nonrace-related experiences to them. However, they felt closer to their friend after the race-related disclosure. Additionally, they felt more comfortable hearing about race-related experiences from a friend than through a third party and they reported learning more when the race-related experience was a friend's than a stranger's. Taken together, the studies highlight the benefits as well as the risks of conversations about race for cross-race friends and the need for future studies that track real-time conversations and test strategies to help friends engage in these conversations productively. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Rehumanizing the self after victimization: The roles of forgiveness versus revenge.

Everyday maltreatments can threaten people's basic sense of being human. Can victims restore their sense of humanness after it has been damaged by an offense and, if so, how? Four studies compared forgiving and taking revenge as responses to victimization. In Study 1, participants recalled a time they either forgave or took revenge against someone who had hurt them. In Studies 2 and 3, they imagined being victimized by a coworker and then either forgiving or taking revenge against him. In Study 4, they wrote either a forgiving or a vengeful letter to a transgressor who had committed an offense against them. Each methodology revealed that, compared with revenge, forgiveness was more effective at rehumanizing the self; indeed, forgiveness produced feelings of humanness that nearly exceeded levels experienced by nonvictimized participants (Study 3). Studies 3 and 4 also provided evidence that perceiving 1's forgiveness as moral contributes to a restored sense of humanness. Study 4 further revealed important downstream predictive consequences of a restored sense of self-humanity following forgiveness-less self-harm, a greater sense of belonging to the human community, and greater importance of one's moral identity. Extending past research on the benefits of forgiveness, this work highlights the agency that victims have to repair their humanness in the wake of a dehumanizing offense. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Teacher Mindsets Help Explain Where a Growth-Mindset Intervention Does and Doesn't Work.

A growth-mindset intervention teaches the belief that intellectual abilities can be developed. Where does the intervention work best? Prior research examined school-level moderators using data from the National Study of Learning Mindsets (NSLM), which delivered a short growth-mindset intervention during the first year of high school. In the present research, we used data from the NSLM to examine moderation by teachers' mindsets and answer a new question: Can students independently implement their growth mindsets in virtually any classroom culture, or must students' growth mindsets be supported by their teacher's own growth mindsets (i.e., the mindset-plus-supportive-context hypothesis)? The present analysis (9,167 student records matched with 223 math teachers) supported the latter hypothesis. This result stood up to potentially confounding teacher factors and to a conservative Bayesian analysis. Thus, sustaining growth-mindset effects may require contextual supports that allow the proffered beliefs to take root and flourish.

Resourceful Actors, Not Weak Victims: Reframing Refugees' Stigmatized Identity Enhances Long-Term Academic Engagement.

Refugees suffer from a stigmatized identity portraying them as weak, unskilled victims. We developed a brief (~10-min) intervention that reframed refugees' identity as being, by its very nature, a source of strength and skills. Reading and writing exercises, provided by a university, highlighted how refugees' experiences helped them acquire skills such as perseverance and the ability to cope with adversity, which could help them succeed in a new country. In Experiment 1 (N = 93), the intervention boosted refugees' (a) confidence in their ability to succeed at an imagined university and (b) challenge seeking: Participants were 70% more likely to take on an academic exercise labeled as difficult. In Experiment 2, the intervention, delivered to refugees entering an online university (N = 533), increased engagement in the online-learning environment by 23% over the subsequent year. There was also evidence of greater course completion. It is possible to reframe stigmatized individuals' identity as inherently strong and resourceful, helping them put their strengths to use.

Lifting the Bar: A Relationship-Orienting Intervention Reduces Recidivism Among Children Reentering School From Juvenile Detention.

When children return to school from juvenile detention, they face a severe stigma. We developed a procedure to orient educators and students toward each other as positive relationship partners during this period. In Study 1, through a structured exercise, students reentering school powerfully articulated to an educator of their choosing their prosocial hopes for school as well as challenges they faced. In a preliminary field trial (N = 47), presenting this self-introduction to this educator in a one-page letter via a third-party requesting the educator's help reduced recidivism to juvenile detention through the next semester from 69% to 29%. In Study 2 (preregistered), the letter led experienced teachers (N = 349) to express greater commitment to, anticipate more success for, and feel more love and respect for a student beginning their reentry into school, potentially initiating a better trajectory. The results suggest how relationship-orienting procedures may sideline bias and make school more supportive for students facing stigma.

Normative appeals motivate people to contribute to collective action problems more when they invite people to work together toward a common goal.

A common method to promote behavior change, particularly in contexts related to collective action, is to reference a social norm and ask people to comply with it. We argue that such appeals will be more effective when they couch the norm as an invitation to work with others toward a common goal. In six experiments, we found that working-together normative appeals, which invited people to "join in" and "do it together," increased interest in (Experiments 1, 4, and 5) and actual charitable giving (Experiment 2), reduced paper-towel use in public restrooms (Experiment 3), and increased interest in reducing personal carbon emissions (Experiment 6). By contrast, normative-information appeals, which included the same normative information but no reference to working together, did not affect interest or behavior. Mediation analyses suggest that working-together normative appeals were more effective because they fostered a feeling in participants that they were working together with others, which increased motivation, while inducing less social pressure, which undermined effectiveness. Results show how the very collective nature of collective action problems can be leveraged to promote personal behavior change and help solve societal problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The role of psychological factors and institutional channels in predicting the attainment of postsecondary goals.

Developmental systems theory and life span development describe the role of individual-context interactions in individual development but have not directly addressed how individuals pursue achievement goals in institutional contexts. We developed a theory informed by these perspectives that explains how institutional contexts affect emerging adults' success in transitioning to and progressing through college. We theorize that institutional contexts increase individuals' probability of attaining specific goals when they provide stronger channels that offer more versus fewer structural supports for these goals. Moreover, we theorize, these institutional channels influence which individual differences, including belonging certainty, growth mindset of intelligence, and grit, will be useful in goal pursuit, above and beyond individuals' academic preparation and demographic factors. We examined postsecondary goal pursuit over a 6-year period among 1,850 students who attended one of four district high schools in Pennsylvania or Massachusetts. On average, they began the study at 17.91 years of age; 48% were male, 43% belonged to a historically marginalized ethnicity, and 56% had free or reduced lunch status. We found that channel strength and psychological factors interacted in ways predicted by our theory. Higher belonging certainty and growth mindset in Grade 12, which encourage a focus on process and progress, predicted better outcomes in weaker postsecondary channels, especially college enrollment and on-track progress. Higher grit, which encourages a commitment to goal attainment, predicted better outcomes in stronger postsecondary channels, especially on-time graduation. The study locates the importance of psychological factors in predicting goal attainment in different-strength institutional channels during emerging adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A customized belonging intervention improves retention of socially disadvantaged students at a broad-access university.

Broad-access institutions play a democratizing role in American society, opening doors to many who might not otherwise pursue college. Yet these institutions struggle with persistence and completion. Do feelings of nonbelonging play a role, particularly for students from groups historically disadvantaged in higher education? Is belonging relevant to students' persistence-even when they form the numerical majority, as at many broad-access institutions? We evaluated a randomized intervention aimed at bolstering first-year students' sense of belonging at a broad-access university (N = 1,063). The intervention increased the likelihood that racial-ethnic minority and first-generation students maintained continuous enrollment over the next two academic years relative to multiple control groups. This two-year gain in persistence was mediated by greater feelings of social and academic fit one-year post-intervention. Results suggest that efforts to address belonging concerns at broad-access, majority-minority institutions can improve core academic outcomes for historically disadvantaged students at institutions designed to increase college accessibility.

Seed and Soil: Psychological Affordances in Contexts Help to Explain Where Wise Interventions Succeed or Fail.

Psychologically "wise" interventions can cause lasting improvement in key aspects of people's lives, but where will they work and where will they not? We consider the psychological affordance of the social context: Does the context in which the intervention is delivered afford the way of thinking offered by the intervention? If not, treatment effects are unlikely to persist. Change requires planting good seeds (a more adaptive perspective) in fertile soil in which that seed can grow (a context with appropriate affordances). We illustrate the role of psychological affordances in diverse problem spaces, including recent large-scale trials of growth-mindset and social-belonging interventions designed specifically to understand heterogeneity across contexts. We highlight how the study of psychological affordances can advance theory about social contexts and inform debates about replicability.

Toward a science of delivering aid with dignity: Experimental evidence and local forecasts from Kenya.

How can governments and nonprofits design aid programs that afford dignity and facilitate beneficial outcomes for recipients? We conceptualize dignity as a state that manifests when the stigma associated with receiving aid is countered and recipients are empowered, both in culturally resonant ways. Yet materials from the largest cash transfer programs in Africa predominantly characterize recipients as needy and vulnerable. Three studies examined the causal effects of alternative aid narratives on cash transfer recipients and donors. In study 1, residents of low-income settlements in Nairobi, Kenya (N = 565) received cash-based aid accompanied by a randomly assigned narrative: the default deficit-focused "Poverty Alleviation" narrative, an "Individual Empowerment" narrative, or a "Community Empowerment" narrative. They then chose whether to spend time building business skills or watching leisure videos. Both empowerment narratives improved self-efficacy and anticipated social mobility, but only the "Community Empowerment" narrative significantly motivated recipients' choice to build skills and reduced stigma. Given the diverse settings in which aid is delivered, how can organizations quickly identify effective narratives in a context? We asked recipients to predict which narrative would best motivate skill-building in their community. In study 2, this "local forecasting" methodology outperformed participant evaluations and experimental pilots in accurately ranking treatments. Finally, study 3 confirmed that the narrative most effective for recipients did not undermine donors' willingness to contribute to the program. Together these studies show that responding to recipients' psychological and sociocultural realities in the design of aid can afford recipients dignity and help realize aid's potential.

A brief social-belonging intervention in college improves adult outcomes for black Americans.

Could mitigating persistent worries about belonging in the transition to college improve adult life for black Americans? To examine this question, we conducted a long-term follow-up of a randomized social-belonging intervention delivered in the first year of college. This 1-hour exercise represented social and academic adversity early in college as common and temporary. As previously reported in Science, the exercise improved black students' grades and well-being in college. The present study assessed the adult outcomes of these same participants. Examining adult life at an average age of 27, black adults who had received the treatment (versus control) exercise 7 to 11 years earlier reported significantly greater career satisfaction and success, psychological well-being, and community involvement and leadership. Gains were statistically mediated by greater college mentorship. The results suggest that addressing persistent social-psychological concerns via psychological intervention can shape the life course, partly by changing people's social realities.

Preschoolers find ways to resist temptation after learning that willpower can be energizing.

Children's tendency to delay gratification predicts important life outcomes, yet little is known about how to enhance delay of gratification other than by teaching task-specific strategies. The present research investigated the effect of exposing children to a model who experiences the exertion of willpower as energizing. In two experiments, 86 4- to 5-year olds were read a story that represented the exertion of willpower as energizing or a control story before taking part in a delay of gratification task. Children exposed to a storybook character who struggled with waiting, but eventually found it energizing, spontaneously generated more delay strategies, which enhanced delay. By promoting the search for effective strategies, this approach provides a promising direction for efforts to foster self-regulation early in development.

A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement.

A global priority for the behavioural sciences is to develop cost-effective, scalable interventions that could improve the academic outcomes of adolescents at a population level, but no such interventions have so far been evaluated in a population-generalizable sample. Here we show that a short (less than one hour), online growth mindset intervention-which teaches that intellectual abilities can be developed-improved grades among lower-achieving students and increased overall enrolment to advanced mathematics courses in a nationally representative sample of students in secondary education in the United States. Notably, the study identified school contexts that sustained the effects of the growth mindset intervention: the intervention changed grades when peer norms aligned with the messages of the intervention. Confidence in the conclusions of this study comes from independent data collection and processing, pre-registration of analyses, and corroboration of results by a blinded Bayesian analysis.