Seminar Gender Behavior and Decision-Making, with Béatrice Parguel

The Women and Science Chair is organizing the 27th session of the seminar «Gender, Behavior, and Decision-Making» on Thursday, march 20th, from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, online via Teams.

We will have the pleasure to listen to Béatrice Parguel, a CNRS researcher at Université Paris Dauphine-PSL, who will present "When Matilda shows up: how increasing the media visibility of female researchers has a double-edged impact on the non-academic audience". 

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Béatrice Parguel, a CNRS researcher at Paris-Dauphine University, leads the Center for Marketing and Public Policy Research. Her work in consumer psychology, grounded in experimental methodology, informs public policy on consumer education and awareness—addressing issues such as greenwashing, environmental labeling, children's ecological education, and reducing over-packaging. Her research has been published in leading journals, including the International Journal of Research in Marketing, the Journal of Business Ethics, and the International Journal of Advertising."

Abstract

Although the proportion of women in academic positions has increased, female researchers tend to publish less than their male peers, their work is cited less frequently, and they also have a lower media presence. To understand the impact of this situation, we explore non-academic audience reactions to a higher visibility of female researchers in the media. Using two laboratory experiments conducted successively on a sample of non-academic individuals (N=271) and a sample of graduate students (N=129), we show that raising female researchers’ media visibility increases their perceived expertise and decreases the gender gap for self-efficacy beliefs. At first sight, this result would appear useful to narrow the gender gap in science. Unfortunately, however, our findings also reveal that higher media visibility for female researchers erodes male students' perceptions of the attractiveness of academic careers. We build on these paradoxical findings to formulate recommendations for researchers themselves, their institutions, and the media involved in disseminating research.

About the Women & Science Chair   

The Women and Science Chair at Université Paris Dauphine-PSL, created with the support of the L’Oréal Foundation, the Generali Foundation, La Poste, and the Talan Group, seeks to engage and foster interdisciplinary approaches to analyzing the causes and consequences of the underrepresentation of women in careers in scientific research and academia. The Women and Science Chair is member of the UNESCO chairs network.

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