Cheryan, SapnaGermano, Adriana2021-10-292021-10-292021Germano_washington_0250E_23446.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/1773/48102Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2021A society’s norms and values – the thoughts, behaviors, and people that are perceived as typical or desirable – are often taken for granted. Norms and values can thus be overlooked as sources of inequity, leading inequity to persist even after solutions are enacted. Using cultural and social psychology, I identify how cultural norms and values deemed objective and beneficial reinforce inequities, such as racism and sexism. Across three manuscripts, I investigate (1) how to identify a culture’s underlying norms and values (Paper 1) and (2) why cultural norms and values contribute to inequity (Papers 2 and 3). In the first section of this dissertation, I identify the underlying cultural norms and values that prioritize the voices and perspectives of dominant groups (e.g., White people, men) and marginalize those of other groups. In Paper, 1 demonstrate that norms in psychological research perpetuate the same racial inequities observed outside of the lab. Indeed, I find that with respect to who gets chosen as participants and who research questions typically focus on, Native American, Multiracial, Latinx, Asian, and Black people are, in that order, the most understudied racial groups in U.S. research on race. Compared to people of color, White people’s voices and experiences are overwhelmingly prioritized in research on race and diversity. I theorize that cultural preferences favoring Whiteness spill into field norms, dictating how good research on race should look and subsequently influence the seemingly objective field of scientific research. In the second section of this dissertation, I examine how people’s choices within educational settings are influenced by their cultural contexts. In Paper 2, I provide evidence that gender disparities in STEM education (i.e., Science, Technology, Education, Mathematics) are largest between women and men with most social advantages and opportunities (i.e., higher opportunity contexts). Using cross-national datasets, data from the U.S. Department of Education on the number of STEM degrees obtained by race and gender, and comparisons by social class of U.S. school districts, I demonstrate that some gender gaps in STEM are paradoxically greater in higher versus lower opportunity contexts, suggesting new paths for understanding and reducing gender disparities. In Paper 3, I find that offering, versus not offering, diversity awards leads application pools for more lucrative unrestricted awards (i.e., awards open to everyone) to become less diverse. When two unrestricted awards are offered, applicants from marginalized groups are more likely to select the more lucrative award. However, the presence of a less lucrative diversity award causes applicants from marginalized groups to apply for and prioritize applications to the diversity award over the more lucrative unrestricted award. By not considering the context in which diversity awards are offered, diversity awards may maintain inequity between student groups by leaving larger, more lucrative awards to be won by primarily men and White students. To address this potential source of inequity, I propose potential solutions for remedying this issue that do not focus on changing people from marginalized groups’ behaviors or on eliminating diversity awards altogether, but instead focus on local structural solutions that could increase the attractiveness of unrestricted awards to applicants from marginalized groups. Taken together, the data and theories presented in this dissertation support the need for a new more integrated model of culture’s influence on inequity. Understanding how cultural norms and values influence and maintain inequity is essential for creating solutions to inequities that work. By examining our broader norms of who is seen as typical and uncovering how cultural features that seem beneficial possibly are not, this dissertation provides a new framework for understanding and reducing inequity.application/pdfen-USnoneSocial psychologyPsychologyThesis