Study highlights men psychologists’ implicit bias in gender citation gap

A team of researchers published a study in the peer-reviewed academic journal American Psychologist that explores the reasons behind the gender citation gap in psychology, highlighting the role of male psychologists’ implicit bias in recalling and naming other female colleagues.

Despite women comprising over 75% of the psychology workforce, only 38% of the total researchers named in the study were women. This recall bias was entirely driven by men, who named only 27% female colleagues, whereas women offered almost 50%.

According to a previous 2020 paper, women psychology researchers publish and are cited less than their men counterparts. Interestingly, this latest study points out that the problem is not the lack of awareness of male researchers of their female colleagues’ work: rather, it is the implicit bias that makes them unable to recall the names of their female colleagues.

The study points out that striving for female representation is not enough, when an effort is not made to practically include women in the conversation by citing their work or being invited to speak at meetings and apply for jobs. 

And that is also what we do at ENWE: encouraging journalists and event organizers to take action and include women in their articles, panels and other speaking opportunities, giving them the tools to do so via our network of European databases of women experts to our monthly “Ask Women” newsletter.

Interested in diving deeper into the study’s methodology and results and learning about the researchers’ proposed solution to the gender citation gap?

You can find more information about the study in this article published in Science magazine.

ENWE – European Network for Women Excellence is an advocacy group committed to creating a network of European databases that offer an extensive selection of prestigious female profiles for interviews, conferences, and panels. Find out more about our network of partners here.