'Why' to Increase Beliefs that STEM Fields Involve Others: Higher Levels of Construal Elevate Communal Affordances in STEM

The goal congruity perspective posits that STEM careers are believed to impede communal goals such as the desire to work with or help others.Pilot data revealed that, relative to medicine and social work, STEM careers were perceived as much less likely to afford proximal connections to others (e.g., direct helping) but similarly likely to afford distal connections to others (e.g., helping society).In the current research, I explored whether higher levels of construal, which are associated with greater focus on and impact of distal others and goals, would lead to greater perceptions that STEM fields fulfill communal goals.Supporting my fundamental prediction, higher level construals of a STEM task led to greater perceptions that the task involves others (Study 1 and Study 2).Greater perceptions of the communal nature of a STEM task translated to perceptions that a STEM career involved other people and indirectly to more positive attitudes toward a STEM career (Study 1 and Study 2).Study 2 tested the hypothesis that a high construal of a STEM task would translate to greater performance on a math task but this prediction was not supported.Overall, students performed poorly, suggesting floor effects.This research extends the goal congruity perspective by examining affordances along the dimension of distance, demonstrating that one route to communal perceptions is through elaborating the broader purpose of STEM tasks. 'WHY' TO INCREASE BELIEFS