Sarah-Jane Leslie's research while affiliated with Princeton University and other places

... The first moderator we investigated was parents' and mentors' field-specific ability beliefs (or FABs) about chess. Fields and occupations differ in the extent to which intellectual talent ("brilliance") is seen as necessary for success (for a review, see Muradoglu et al., 2023). Contexts with more brilliance-oriented FABs are less welcoming to women, in part because of greater prejudice against them (Bian et al., 2018;Hannak et al., 2023;Leslie, Cimpian, et al., 2015). ...

... On this account, the pathway from generics to social essentialism is independent of the content of the generic statements and the consequent inherent explanations. According to this account, children learn to essentialize categories very early on and generic language signals to them which social categories are salient in their communities and prime "candidates" for essential reasoning (Benitez et al., 2022, Foster-Hanson et al., 2022. Consequently, regardless of the explicit information communicated in a generic sentence, using generic terms (e.g., "Turks") signals to children that these categories are culturally relevant and appropriate targets for essentialization. ...

... These include gender differences in available role models, parental encouragement, and gender-biased comments from peers and adults. First, boys are more likely than girls to see their gender ingroup represented as physicists, astronomers, computer scientists, or engineers in classrooms and popular media (e.g., Wang et al., 2022). Second, research suggests that many parents may encourage activities related to math, science, and technology more likely for their sons than daughters from childhood into adolescence (e.g., Eccles, 2015). ...

... More recently, literature on Black women academics' experiences at university has looked at the invisible labour that Black women academics often take on, and that is often unrecognised, unseen, and under-valued in the academy. The literature has explored the resilience shown by Black women academics in senior leadership; the racism, sexism, and disconnection experienced by Black women in STEM fields; Black women's efforts at challenging and confronting anti-Blackness and White supremacy in academia; and more (see Blell et al., 2022;Muradoglu et al., 2022;Vohlídalová, 2021). In this paper, we contribute to this emerging body of research that looks at, and theorises, Black women academics' experiences in navigating their being and belonging in a South African university. ...

... Because generics allow for exceptions-indeed, they can express properties that are more typically false than true (e.g., "Birds lay eggs" is considered true, even though male birds and baby birds do not lay eggs)-they minimize variability within a category (41)(42)(43). Experiments have found that hearing or reading generics about novel categories results in: high levels of within-category inferences (44,45); treating the features expressed as especially central (46); and essentializing the category in question (47)(48)(49). Moreover, if two categories (A and B) contrast with one another, then a generic true of category A is assumed to be not true of category B (50)(51)(52). ...

... Students prefer workshops to projects and lectures. Hands-on approaches at an early age when students are "doing the science" may be more affective compared to the "being a scientist" approach [8], with parents playing an important role in the process [9]. The wow effect is well known in marketing and is created by the perception of a memorable experience related to a product or service. ...

... We might expect to see the same inferential asymmetry for social categories as was observed for animal kinds, given that people often reason about social categories as if they were natural kinds (Prentice & Miller, 2007;Rhodes & Gelman, 2009;Rothbart & Taylor, 1992). Consistent with this possibility, generic language promotes essentialist reasoning in both domains (Foster-Hanson, Leslie, & Rhodes, 2016Gelman, Ware, & Kleinberg, 2010;Leshin et al., 2020;Rhodes, Leslie, & Tworek, 2012, 2018a, 2018b. ...

... The lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion in science poses a hindrance to the advancement of citizen science. This challenge is especially pronounced for gender, racial, and ethnic minorities, as well as women and individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds [138]. We hope that by making SDLs low-cost, ac-cessible, and open source, it will be easier to build equity and inclusion into the educational system. ...

... If people tend to recall statements about political positions as generic, it would suggest that the polarizing language of generics (established in study 1) is how information about groups tends to be stored in memory. Given prior research demonstrating that categories exaggerate perceptions of between-group differences two (e.g., "Bears" vs. "All bears," when recalling "All bears climb trees"; see also ref. 65). If it did, then we would expect a generic advantage regardless of what is expressed, but the generic advantage holds only when the quantifier is broad in scope (e.g., all vs. some; 53), and only when the property expressed is generalizable (e.g., fur color vs. getting muddy; 66). ...

... In most European languages there is a distinction between the male and female form of scientist, for example. Past studies show that language can influence stereotype formation (Cimpian & Markman, 2011;Rhodes et al., 2019). Other research shows that naming science as behaviour or action rather than as a fixed identity contributes to the interest of young girls (4 to 9 years old) in technology. ...