Abstract
Introduction
Higher education institutions often rely on STEM viewbooks that display a diverse student body to recruit ethnic-racial minoritized students (ERMs) into STEM. However, the impact of visual representation in recruitment efforts on ERM psychological and behavioral outcomes has yet to be experimentally tested.
Methods
In a first-of-its-kind study, we conducted a naturalistic field experiment targeting admitted college students across eight higher education institutions. Students were given the opportunity to read a STEM viewbook displaying either White and Asian (non-ERM) or Black and Latinx (ERM) STEM professionals.
Results
Unexpectedly, students across all ethnic-racial backgrounds (
N
= 290) demonstrated stronger STEM engagement, identity, and intentions after reading the non-ERM viewbook compared to the ERM viewbook. Moreover, exploratory student gender analyses revealed that male students (across all ethnic-racial groups) exhibited relatively higher STEM identities, STEM intentions, and recruitment responsive behavior, driven by greater engagement with the non-ERM viewbook.
Discussion
Though college recruitment efforts use diverse visual displays within viewbooks with the goal to increase their student diversity, this naturalistic experiment presents inconclusive evidence for the effectiveness of this commonly-used recruitment method.