Countering Gender Biases Using Insight in Psychological Studies

       When given a problem, there are typically two ways one can go about solving it. The first one being through analysis. In this case, one would solve the problem how most people would by making sense of the problem and deduce an answer from that. The second way of solving a problem is through insight. Insight described by Dr. Carola Salvi a professor from Northwestern University, is a surprise, coming from unawareness, usually with accuracy. Insight is usually known as that ‘aha!’ moment when it comes “all at once.”

Dr. Carola Salvi works in the Shirley Ryan Abilitylab and has been studying insight to get a better understanding of how it works. One of her many studies focuses on whether confidence relates to accuracy using four different tests, insight was most likely correct. In these tests what her group had found was that most errors occured in the last five seconds of the test. This is because insight is an all or nothing process so if it will either happen or it will not. While Dr. Salvi may be doing research in understanding insight more there are many studies which utilize insight as a mechanism. In two studies published by the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers utilized the aha moment as a mechanism to eliminate gender bias against women in STEM. This was done through a game in which the goal was to solve a mystery and realize that the scientist was a woman. There were two studies conducted using this game: one on college student and the other on high school students. The game portrayed many characters with genderless names, however, some were given pronouns and others were not. In order to win the game and solve the mystery the students had to realize that the scientist was a woman and therefore the item of interest was hidden in the woman’s bathroom. If the students didn’t solve the mystery the experimenter explained the answer to allow all the participants to have the aha moment. In the first study 23.1% solved it before the answer was explained, while in the second study 38.7% solved it before. In the latter study the game was made easier for the high school participants. Regardless of whether or not the participants solved the mystery, which would require them to have insight into overcoming gender bias towards women in STEM, the purpose of the game is to find ways to create friendly interventions that break biases such as gender biases or racial biases. While Dr. Salvi’s work focuses more on how insight functions, studies using insight can have practical implications like this one. However, knowing how insight works can better our understanding of how we can increase insight and make better adapted interventions to dispel biases.

   

Works Cited

Freedman, G., Seidman, M., Flanagan, M., Kaufman, G., & Green, M. (2018). The impact of an "aha" moment on gender biases: Limited evidence for the efficacy of a game intervention that challenges gender assumptions. Journal Of Experimental Social Psychology, 78, 162-167.