Broken Images, Gilded Images: Descriptions of Scientists over Time

该项目研究了性别、种族、正式和“非正式”教育维度如何影响科学家的形象，以及这些形象与公民科学素养之间的关系。分析采用美国国家科学基金会公众对科学技术的态度调查：1979-2001。这些分析考察了1983年和2001年正规教育如何与文化资源相互作用，从而影响科学家的形象。通过增加我们对人们参考的科学文化资源的了解，这个项目可以帮助制作可以直接教学的媒体，被用作促进公众批判性思维的例子，促进科学家更有利的形象，或者揭穿经常出现在媒体上的通灵者和其他假冒从业者。公众对代表性不足的群体，例如妇女、非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔美国人在特定科学和技术职业中的兴趣也有所恢复。成年人传递给年轻人的科学家形象有助于创造一种影响科学事业吸引力的氛围。通过消除对偏执和特殊科学家的刻板印象，我们可能会增加发现科学事业更有吸引力的天才个人的数量和多样性。

This project examines how gender, ethnicity, and formal and "informal" educational dimensions affect images of scientists, and how these images relate to civic science literacy. Analyses employ the NSF Surveys of Public Attitudes Toward Science and Technology: 1979-2001. These analyses examine how formal education interacts with cultural resources in 1983 and 2001 to affect images of scientists. By increasing our knowledge about the cultural resources people reference about science, this project may help craft media that can directly teach, be used as examples to promote critical thinking in the general public, promote more favorable images of scientists, or debunk psychics and other ersatz practitioners who regularly appear in media outlets. There also has been a resurgence of public interest in under represented groups, e.g., women, African-Americans and Hispanics in specific science and technology occupations. The images of scientists that adults transmit to youth help create a climate affecting the appeal of science careers. By counteracting stereotyped views of obsessive and peculiar scientists, we may increase the number and diversity of gifted individuals who find science careers more attractive.