Mark Zanna

Girls and women face persistent negative stereotyping within STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). This field intervention was designed to improve boys' perceptions of girls' STEM ability. Boys (N = 667; mostly White and East Asian) aged 9–15 years in Canadian STEM summer camps (2017–2019) had an intervention or control conversation with trained camp staff. The intervention was a multi‐stage persuasive appeal: a values affirmation, an illustration of girls' ability in STEM, a personalized anecdote, and reflection. Control participants discussed general camp experiences. Boys who received the intervention (vs. control) had more positive perceptions of girls' STEM ability, d = 0.23, an effect stronger among younger boys. These findings highlight the importance of engaging elementary‐school‐aged boys to make STEM climates more inclusive.

In our recent study--using a large set of nationally representative samples of smokers from Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia--we reported on the longitudinal patterns of smoking-related beliefs and how these beliefs vary with changes in smoking status. We found a consistent pattern of attitude-behaviour congruence: smokers highly endorsed risk-minimizing beliefs (eg," I have the genetic make-up that allows me to smoke without any health problems") and functional beliefs (eg," Smoking helps me concentrate"). But the most interesting finding was the longitudinal pattern of how these justifications for smoking changed over time as their smoking status changed: smokers endorsed these beliefs the least when they had quit; and again endorsed these beliefs to their pre-quit levels if they relapsed back to smoking, whereas the levels of endorsement of these beliefs stayed low among those smokers who had quit …

Originally published in 1986, this book grew out of a symposium held in 1981 at the University of Toronto on physical appearance as a determinant of personality and social behavior. There is little doubt that one’s appearance has some impact on the way one is perceived and treated; and presumably, owing to the socially reflected nature of the self, one’s personality likewise will be affected by one’s appearance. The questions arising from these basic observations and assumptions are many, and the expert contributors were invited to discuss their research on some of the implications of individual differences in appearance as they ramify into personality and social interaction. The chapters in this volume are the outcome of those discussions and cover the areas of facial attractiveness; physique; impact on social behavior, and deviance. Still a topic of interest to this day, this book can now be read and enjoyed in its historical context.

Originally published in 1981, this volume presents papers from the first Ontario Symposium on Personality and Social Psychology held at the University of Western Ontario from August 25-27, 1978. The general theme of the symposium was social cognition. The chapters have been grouped into two major parts. Chapters 1-5 focus on the implications of cognitive structures for social cognition, with particular emphasis on the nature of social schemata and the organization of social information. Chapters 6-11 focus on the consequences for social cognition of various cognitive processes and mechanisms, including verbal and nonverbal communicative processes, category accessibility, salience and selective attention, hypothesis-testing, and self-centered biases. Chapter 12 comments on the general perspectives taken in the previous chapters and suggests some additional directions for future consideration. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.

One of the earliest phenomena addressed by a self-consciously cognitive social psychology—and one that continues to be an important research focus for contemporary cognitive social psychologists—is the process by which we form impressions of others. This chapter discusses a series of studies of interactions in which one party attempted to deceive the other. The dependent variable measure is what we call the Detection Index. It consists of the sum of the truthfulness ratings for those questions on which the interviewee was answering truthfully minus the sum of the ratings for those answers on which the interviewee was lying. Attractiveness is typically considered a biasing factor and was included because we expected it to be related to our judges’ ratings—predicting that attractive interviewees would be judged more truthful. It should go without saying that our attribution explanation of the effects of pitch variation …

As faculty members whose university careers have spanned more years and more colleges than the people care to remember, they have frequently been involved in the process of hiring new faculty members. Scan the APA Monitor, the CPA Highlights, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the newsletters and publications of various APA and CPA divisions and interest groups. One very real limit to job search flexibility is imposed by spouse career commitments. When hiring institutions are ready to make their decisions, they will choose from among those candidates with complete files. The key audience will be faculty members and perhaps advanced graduate students. Inevitably, there will be some reservations concerning the merits of a candidacy. At all institutions people notice. Failure to complete the degree is a real handicap.

This chapter focuses on the report of an empirical study, but the general writing suggestions apply as well to the theoretical articles, literature reviews, and methodological contributions that also appear in journals. The conventional view of the research process is that the people first derive a set of hypotheses from a theory, design and conduct a study to test these hypotheses, analyze the data to see if they were confirmed or discontinued, and then chronicle this sequence of events in the journal article. The primary criteria for good scientific writing are accuracy and clarity. Scientific journals are published for specialized audiences who share a common background of substantive knowledge and methodological expertise. Inexperienced writers often substitute synonyms for recurring words and vary their sentence structure in the mistaken belief that this is more creative, stylish, and interesting.

An earlier version of this chapter appeared in the Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology. Over the years, and particularly through supervising graduate students, the people have developed a style of conducting research and writing it up that is reasonably successful and shared with many other faculty members. Graduate students often seem confused about the purpose of piloting, and the people have not found any text that gives an entirely satisfactory set of answers. A subject who is brought to a novel experimental setting, in which the experimenter takes some care to explain the importance of the study, is likely to take the study more seriously than is a group of people doing a study in surroundings designed for some other purpose. For instance, because of own backgrounds, the people have focused on doing experimental research, primarily in laboratory settings.

Doing research with graduate students, and the relationships that are formed in the process, is one of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of being an academic psychologist. Some graduate students who have many talents and very well-developed interest patterns, may be "misfits" in the graduate program which a new faculty member joins. The central issue to be dealt with initially by a faculty member is how to identify a research project on which the graduate student will work. The modified apprenticeship system, the people have described has an important limit. Finally, it is difficult for the beginning faculty member who identifies closely with a graduate student to do academic advising. Short of medical and life-threatening emergencies, it is most important for graduate students in the 1980s to keep their careers on track. In this chapter, the authors have discussed the conduct of advising graduate student …

Rosenthal and Jacobson demonstrated that teachers' expectations for their students' academic performance had a significant impact on that performance, and subsequent studies have confirmed the self-fulfilling prophecy potential of expectations based on presumed knowledge about individual capabilities. Other studies suggest that expectations for behavior based on an individual's membership in a particular group can also function as self-fulfilling prophecies. If expectations and job requirements are consistent, the appropriate course of action is relatively straightforward. However, consistency of style with implicit position requirements rather than with the sex-role expectations held by the male subjects was the critical factor. The interviewer's failure to emit verbal or behavioral cues consistent with his supposed attitudes toward women did not deter female applicants from behaving in ways consistent with their …