More than a token photo: humanising scientists enhances student engagement

Despite broad consensus that highlighting counter-stereotypical scientist role models in educational materials promotes equity and success, the specific elements that make these materials effective remain untested. Are pictures of counter-stereotypical scientists enough to communicate to students that scientists come from a variety of backgrounds, or is additional information required? To parse the effects of including visual depictions and humanising information about scientists featured in biology course materials, we distributed three randomised versions of assignments over several academic terms across 36 undergraduate institutions (N > 3,700 students). We found that the inclusion of humanising information about scientists was key to increasing student engagement with the biology course materials. Structural equation modelling revealed that the extent to which students related to scientists mediated the positive effect of humanising descriptions on student engagement. Further, ou..., These data describe survey responses from students immediately after working through a quantitative biology activity that featured a counter-stereoyptical scientist in one of three ways: 1) provided no information about the scientist (the control treatment), 2) included photos of the scientist (the visual treatment), or 3) included both photos and interview questions answered by the scientist about their experiences as a counter-stereotypical scientist (the humanizing treatment). Students in biology courses taught by 43 different instructors at 36 different US undergraduate universities and colleges participated in the study. Over the duration of the course, students engaged with three different quantitative biology activities from a single treatment and were surveyed after each activity. Our study included a total of 12 different quantitative biology activities, and the specific activities implemented in each course were chosen by the instructor to best match the course content. We col..., , # More than a token photo: humanising scientists enhances student engagement

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mgqnk996c](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mgqnk996c)

These data describe survey responses from students immediately after working through a quantitative biology activity that featured a counter-stereotypical scientist in one of three ways: 1) provided no information about the scientist (the control treatment), 2) included photos of the scientist (the visual treatment), or 3) included both photos and interview questions answered by the scientist about their experiences as a counter-stereotypical scientist (the humanizing treatment).

# Description of the data and file structure

The survey data are organized into two different datasets: the quantitative dataset (TokenPhotoQuantitative_20240404.csv) and the qualitative dataset (TokenPhotoQualitative_20241010.csv). The quantitative dataset includes student responses to survey items on a 7-point scale, whereas the qualitative dataset...