Although overall women are better represented in higher education than men, women's psychological experience in various academic contexts is qualified by a decreased sense of belonging and academic self-efficacy, including in fields where they are not targeted by a negative stereotype. To clarify this phenomenon, we develop the hypothesis of a mismatch between female students' values and the values associated with success in the increasingly selective realm of higher education. We argue that, whatever the fields of study, these values are self-enhancement values (competitiveness, self-affirmation, dominance). Three studies showed that when success was depicted in terms of self-enhancement values, women-but not men-expressed a lower sense of belonging, had lower self-efficacy and were less likely to pursue a given academic opportunity both in STEM and non-STEM fields of study. These effects did not appear in an academic context depicting success as being rooted in selftranscendence values (helpfulness, cooperation, benevolence).
Background: We investigated the link between the endorsement of self-enhancement values (e.g., ambition, influence, authority and social power) and school achievement (i.e., grades). Aim: Adopting an intersectional framework, we argued that the link may be qualified by both students' gender and their parents' education level. We hypothesized that depending on students' different experiences in the school system as a function of their gender and their parents' level of educational attainment, the endorsement of self-enhancement values might be either beneficial or detrimental to their academic achievement. Samples: We conducted two studies: a pilot study (N = 191) and a preregistered main study (N = 652). Method: High-school students reported their endorsement of self-enhancement values, their gender and their parents' education level. The school administration provided students' grade average.
Results and Conclusions:In the pilot study, we found an interaction effect between the endorsement of self-enhancement values, gender and parental level of education on grades: For male students, the endorsement of self-enhancement values was associated with lower grades when their parents had a lower education level, but there was no such association for male students whose parents had a higher education level. No such effect was found for female students. With an improved methodology, the main study found an interaction effect between the endorsement of self-enhancement values and gender on grades.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.