Psychologically Inclusive Design: Cues Impact Women's Participation in STEM Education

Visual and verbal cues can reinforce barriers to access for women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines. Psychologically inclusive design is an evidence-based approach to reduce psychological barriers by strategically placing content and design cues in the environment. Two large field experiments provide estimates of the behavioral impact of psychologically inclusive cues on women's and men's enrollment behaviors in an online learning environment. First, a gender-inclusive photo and statement in an online advertisement for a STEM course increased the click-through rate among women but not men by 26% (N=209,000). Second, an inclusivity statement with a gender-inclusive course image to the enrollment page raised the proportion of women enrolling in a STEM course by up to 18% (N=63,000). These findings contribute evidence of the behavioral impact of psychologically inclusive design to the literature and yield practical implications for the presentation of STEM opportunities.