(Absent) Allyship in STEM: Can Psychological Standing Increase Prejudice Confrontation?

Abstract

The current research focuses on the role that allies can play in improving the experiences of Black and Latinx students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) contexts. Using an experience sampling design, study 1 shows that such students report negative experiences in STEM learning contexts and that bystanders rarely engage in allyship. Study 2 suggests that participants perceive the experiences described by Black and Latinx students in study 1 as negative and somewhat urgent, but do not feel personal responsibility to act. Studies 3 and 4 assess the effectiveness of interventions aimed at enhancing personal responsibility for confronting prejudice and engaging in allyship. Study 3 reveals that enhancing a bystander’s sense of psychological standing can increase prejudice confrontation, and study 4 extends this phenomenon by showing that fellow bystanders’ (not just targets’) appeals to other bystanders’ psychological standing also evoke action. Overall, this work advances research on allyship in STEM contexts by integrating the Confronting Prejudiced Responses (CPR) model with theories of subtle discrimination.