“Picture a Scientist,” a documentary featuring stories and research about bias in STEM, reached a large international audience. Yet, the extent to which this type of engaging media can impact gender bias remains unclear. In a unique collaboration between film creators and researchers, the current large-scale field studies explored whether “Picture a Scientist” functioned as an intervention and persuasive message targeting sexism in STEM. Study 1 found viewers who indicated more knowledge and stronger emotions, perspective-taking, and transportation after the film were more inspired to continue learning about sexism in STEM and combating unfair treatment, suggesting the documentary engaged both classic and narrative persuasion processes. Study 2 demonstrated that compared to those who had not watched the film (but intended to), participants who had viewed the film indicated higher awareness of gender bias, stronger intentions to address this bias, and participants in leadership reported stronger intentions to enact inclusive policies (for example, making it easier to report mistreatment). Our findings suggest that the use of this documentary may be a relatively low-cost and easily scalable online intervention, particularly when organizations lack resources for in-person workshops. These studies can help inform organizational trainings using this or similar documentaries.

I was incredibly excited to be part of this paper in Scientific Reports (abstract above), looking at how a documentary film, Picture a Scientist, can serve as an intervention to shift attitudes around sexism in science. It was an honor to work with Eva Pietri, Corinne Moss-Racusin, and Arispa Wiegold.

We started this work when I was publicist and outreach producer for Picture a Scientist, and we were fortunate to have so many universities and institutions help recruit participants from the wide screenings of the film — at the time some 1,300 screenings and now well more than 2,000! Thank you to those who participated! It’s quite a testament to the far reach of the film that we were able to first implement this study and now share results that could help push science communications, advocacy/education, and films in new directions with the deft guide of social science.

I shared the early results of this work in the last chapter of my book, Women in Science Now. Films matter, what we do in #scicomm matters. I hope this is just one of many innovative collaborations between social scientists and science communications practitioners.