STEM Image Videos as a Means to Increase Students’ Interest and Utility Value Perception: Does Goal Congruity Matter?

Abstract

Given the increasing shortage of STEM professionals and decreasing enrolment numbers in STEM degrees, higher education institutions have been seeking ways to attract more students to STEM subjects, particularly women. In two preregistered studies (NStudy1 = 292; NStudy2 = 307), we tested whether STEM image videos can increase (female) students’ domain-specific interest in biomedical engineering (Study 1) and geodesy (Study 2), and the perceived utility value of the respective domains. Building on Goal Congruity Theory, we further examined gender differences in participants’ agentic and communal goal orientations and the effect of agentic and communal video framings on participants’ interest and utility value. Both studies document a positive influence of the videos on students’ domain-specific interest and utility value. Further analyses investigating gender differences showed that women reported, after watching the video, higher interest and utility value in biomedical engineering (Study 1) but lower interest in geodesy (Study 2) than men. In Study 2, no gender differences emerged in domain-specific utility value. Consistent with previous research, women valued communal goals more than men in Study 1, yet no gender differences were found regarding agentic goals in both studies. Hardly any effects of the agentic and communal framings on students’ domain-specific interest and utility value were found, except for the agentic condition in Study 2, where men expressed higher interest in geodesy than women. We discuss the implications of our findings in the context of attracting students to STEM fields.