Research Project
Social influences on emotional responses to STEM: Encouraging women to approach STEM through social-environmental changes
A study conducted with Merav Friedmann, lecturer, Department of Business Administration, Ben- Gurion University of the Negev
The purpose of the research is to propose an effective strategy for encouraging women to approach the STEM sector (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).
Women are underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), and their increased participation in these fields could benefit society and the economy. Explicit self- reports measure conscious attitudes, but these can be unreliable due to social desirability or positive self-perception. The impact of different types of female role models (parental, educational- expert, public) on implicit attitudes has rarely been examined, along with the responses of men, who still dominate in STEM.
Three studies aim to explore the impact of these role models on men’s and women’s implicit attitudes towards women in STEM using two sensors: Affectiva and EEG (implicit) and self-report (explicit). In each study, the influence of different social-environmental aspects on emotional responses to STEM will be examined.
This proposal aims to understand the impact of social-environmental influences on women’s approach to STEM, and to suggest how to make effective changes to the social environment and promote change.
Researcher
Enav Friedmann
Lecturer. Department of Business Administration, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Dr. Jörg Franke
Enav Friedmann, Ph.D. Assistant professor at the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management at Ben Gurion University (BGU) in Israel. Enav is the head of the BGU marketing lab. She holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from BGU and was a visiting scholar at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, Italy.
Her current research includes brand preferences and purchasing choices, tailoring to heterogeneous consumer strata, specifically gender and culture-related marketing and social marketing. She research the gap between explicit and implicit responses.