title: Males Under-Estimate Academic Performance of Their Female Peers in Undergraduate Biology Classrooms.
abstract: Women who start college in one of the natural or physical sciences leave in greater proportions than their male peers. The reasons for this difference are complex, and one possible contributing factor is the social environment women experience in the classroom. Using social network analysis, we explore how gender influences the confidence that college-level biology students have in each other's mastery of biology. Results reveal that males are more likely than females to be named by peers as being knowledgeable about the course content. This effect increases as the term progresses, and persists even after controlling for class performance and outspokenness. The bias in nominations is specifically due to males over-nominating their male peers relative to their performance. The over-nomination of male peers is commensurate with an overestimation of male grades by 0.57 points on a 4 point grade scale, indicating a strong male bias among males when assessing their classmates. Females, in contrast, nominated equitably based on student performance rather than gender, suggesting they lacked gender biases in filling out these surveys. These trends persist across eleven surveys taken in three different iterations of the same Biology course. In every class, the most renowned students are always male. This favoring of males by peers could influence student self-confidence, and thus persistence in this STEM discipline.
authors: Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98185, United States of America.
authors: Daniel Z
authors: DZ
authors: Grunspan
authors: Texas Institute for Discovery Education in Science, College of Natural Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, United States of America.
authors: Sarah L
authors: SL
authors: Eddy
authors: School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, United States of America.
authors: Sara E
authors: SE
authors: Brownell
authors: Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States of America.
authors: Benjamin L
authors: BL
authors: Wiggins
authors: Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States of America.
authors: Alison J
authors: AJ
authors: Crowe
authors: Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98185, United States of America.
authors: Steven M
authors: SM
authors: Goodreau
mesh_terms: D001695:Biology / Q000193:education; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D063507:Sexism / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012931:Social Environment; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities / Q000941:ethics*; D055815:Young Adult