Toni Schmader

Biographic Data

ID116035
NAMEToni Schmader
GIVEN NAMESToni
FAMILY NAMESchmader
SIGNATURESCHMADER T
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of British Columbia
ORCID0000-0002-4815-7483
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS72
TOTAL CITATIONS866
AUTHOR COUNT72
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1998
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX13

  • Giving women credit where credit is due: The role of amplifying, attributing, and appropriating others' ideas

    Open AccessTara C Dennehy, Holly R Engstrom et al.ARTICLEJournal of Experimental Social…2026

  • Beyond confronting: Cultivating inclusion through proactive Allyship

    Open AccessLucy De Souza, Lucy L De Souza et al.ARTICLEJournal of Experimental Social…2026References: 8

    Historically marginalized group members encounter barriers to belonging and inclusion, even when instances of interpersonal bias are rare. While allyship (ongoing behaviors in support of those with less societal status; De Souza & Schmader, 2025) includes confronting bias when one sees it, we sought to establish the unique benefits of proactive allyship for those who have gained access to certain domains but remain underrepresented (Flam, 1991; W…

  • Do Measures of Systemizing and Empathizing Reflect Perceptions of Gender Differences in Learning Affordances

    Open AccessAudrey Aday, Toni Schmader et al.ARTICLEPersonality and Social Psychology…2025

    Gender differences in systemizing and empathizing are sometimes attributed to inherent biological factors. We tested whether such effects are more often interpreted as reflecting men’s and women’s different learning affordances. Study 1 ( N = 624) estimated gender differences in item-level activities from systemizing and empathizing scales (SQ, EQ) in large representative samples. Lay coders (Study 2, N = 199) and psychology experts (Study 3, N =…

  • Did Descriptive and Prescriptive Norms About Gender Equality at Home Change During the Covid-19 Pandemic? A Cross-National Investigation

    Open AccessFranziska Magdalena Saxler, Angela R Dorrough et al.ARTICLEPersonality and Social Psychology…2025

    Using data from 15 countries, this article investigates whether descriptive and prescriptive gender norms concerning housework and child care (domestic work) changed after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of a total of 8,343 participants ( M = 19.95, SD = 1.68) from two comparable student samples suggest that descriptive norms about unpaid domestic work have been affected by the pandemic, with individuals seeing mothers’ relative to fa…

  • The Safe Model: State Authenticity as a Function of Three Types of Fit

    Open AccessAudrey Aday, Yingchi Guo et al.ARTICLEPersonality and Social Psychology…2025

    The SAFE model asserts that state authenticity stems from three types of fit to the environment. Across two studies of university students, we validated instruments measuring self-concept, goal, and social fit as unique predictors of state authenticity. In Study 1 ( N = 969), relationships between fit and state authenticity were robust to controlling for conceptually similar and distinct variables. Using experience sampling methodology, Study 2 (…

  • Me, myself, and my stereotypes: Does retraining gender stereotypes change men’s self-concept

    Open AccessKatharina Block, Toni SchmaderARTICLESelf and Identity2025

    Communion–defined as a focus on caring for and connecting with others–is a fundamental value associated with well-being. Yet, men tend to identify with communion significantly less than women do. Although implicit gender stereotypes have been implicated in women’s lower STEM self-concepts, there has been no parallel examination of whether implicit stereotypes constrain men’s lower communal self-concepts. The current research tested whether automa…

  • Friendship networks predict girls’ STEM fit and interest through subjective belonging

    Open AccessEmily Cyr, Jennifer R Steele et al.ARTICLEGroup Processes & Intergroup…2025References: 15

    Girls report lower belonging in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) than boys, which may carry costs for girls’ later STEM participation. We hypothesized that being socially included within a STEM context supports feelings of belonging—which then contributes to stronger intentions to pursue STEM, especially for girls. To investigate, we recruited girls and boys (N = 1,330; Mdn age = 12; 41% White, 35% East Asian) attending week-l…

  • Trust and trust funds: How others’ childhood and current social class context influence trust behavior and expectations

    Open AccessKristin Laurin, Holly R Engstrom et al.ARTICLEJournal of Personality and Social…2025

    Trust is vital for success in all kinds of social interactions. But how do people decide whether an individual can be trusted? One factor people may consider is that individual's social class. We hypothesize that people trust others from lower social class contexts more than others from higher class contexts; we also consider nuances between current and childhood class context and between trust as a behavior and trust as an expectation. Five prer…

  • Who cares about caring? Gender stereotypes about communal values emerge early and predict boys’ prosocial preferences

    Katharina Block, Cameron E Hall et al.ARTICLEDevelopmental Psychology2025

    Communal values (i.e., valuing care for and connection with others) are important to individual well-being and societal functioning yet show marked gender differences, with girls valuing communion more than boys do. We examined whether endorsement of gender stereotypes associating communal values more with girls than with boys relate to children's own communal values and interests, potentially giving rise to gender differences in preferences. We …

  • Why Do Women Care More & Men Couldn't Care Less

    Open AccessToni Schmader, Katharina BlockARTICLEDaedalus2025Cited by: 3

    The health and well-being of society are sustained by a combination of paid and unpaid care work. Yet caregiving roles and occupations are overwhelmingly occupied by women. We outline evidence for five key sociocultural barriers to men's engagement in the care economy. These include prevalent cultural stereotypes that men are inherently less caring, despite little evidence for gender differences in caregiving abilities. Rather, men are socialized…

  • The gender gap in the care economy is larger in highly developed countries: Sociocultural explanations for paradoxical findings

    Open AccessKatharina Block, Maria I T Olsson et al.ARTICLEAmerican Psychologist2025

    Despite the growing demand for care economy employees (e.g., nurses, teachers, and social workers), men remain underrepresented in these careers. While economically developed countries support more equal rights for women and men, their labor markets are highly gender segregated (Charles, 1992, 2003). We conducted a focused investigation of this paradoxical pattern in the care economy, testing whether gender gaps in care economy career interest ar…

  • Seeing women who fit: Girls’ forecasted fit in STEM fosters career interest

    Open AccessEmily Cyr, J Spencer et al.ARTICLESocial Psychology of Education2025Cited by: 1References: 1

    Girls often express less interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education and careers than boys, despite having comparable aptitude. We randomly assigned 242 girls (Mdnage = 12 years; 38% East Asian; 37% White) at Canadian STEM camps to control conversations about generic camp experiences, or intervention conversations where STEM role models discussed how STEM education and careers align with each girl’s most important v…

  • Cultivating allyship for a diverse, equitable and inclusive academia

    Open AccessHsuan-Che ‘brad’ Huang, Hsuan‐che Huang et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2025References: 10

  • Girls are good at STEM: Opening minds and providing evidence reduces boys' stereotyping of girls' STEM ability

    Open AccessEmily Cyr, Kathryn M Kroeper et al.ARTICLEChild Development2024

    Girls and women face persistent negative stereotyping within STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). This field intervention was designed to improve boys' perceptions of girls' STEM ability. Boys (N = 667; mostly White and East Asian) aged 9–15 years in Canadian STEM summer camps (2017–2019) had an intervention or control conversation with trained camp staff. The intervention was a multi-stage persuasive appeal: a values affirmation…

  • Gender Inclusion and Fit in STEM

    Open AccessToni SchmaderARTICLEAnnual Review of Psychology2023

    Despite progress made toward increasing women's interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), women continue to be underrepresented and experience less equity and inclusion in some STEM fields. In this article, I review the psychological literature relevant to understanding and mitigating women's lower fit and inclusion in STEM. Person-level explanations concerning women's abilities, interests, and self-efficacy a…

  • Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models

    Open AccessNatasza Kosakowska‐berezecka, Jennifer K Bosson et al.ARTICLESocial Psychological and…2023

    Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countrie…

  • Collectively constructing gender-inclusive work cultures in STEM

    Open AccessWilliam Hall, William M Hall et al.ARTICLEEuropean Review of Social…2023

    We review a program of work articulating the concept of inclusion – and approaches for achieving it – for women working in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM) organisations. A multi-level framework is described to characterise inclusion in STEM workplaces. This framework is then used to conceptualise a series of empirical studies exploring women's experiences of STEM work cultures. Together, these studies show that identity-based i…

  • Meta-analytic evidence against sex differences in infants’ and toddlers’ preference for prosocial agents

    Francesco Margoni, Katharina Block et al.ARTICLEDevelopmental Psychology2023

    1,094). Although the original studies were agnostic to sex differences, we were able to retrieve the original data sets and estimate the effect of infants' and toddlers' sex on sociomoral preferences. Employing both a standard frequentist and a Bayesian approach to meta-analysis, we found strong evidence supporting the absence of sex differences in sociomoral preferences among infants and toddlers. We discuss the relevance of this finding for the…

  • Gender Gap in Parental Leave Intentions: Evidence from 37 Countries

    Open AccessMaria I T Olsson, Sanne Van Grootel et al.ARTICLEPolitical Psychology2023Cited by: 3References: 55

    Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender‐based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental‐leave intentions in young adults (18–30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that varied in parental‐leave policies and…

  • Why Antibias Interventions (Need Not) Fail

    Open AccessToni Schmader, Tara C Dennehy et al.ARTICLEPerspectives on Psychological…2022

    There is a critical disconnect between scientific knowledge about the nature of bias and how this knowledge gets translated into organizational debiasing efforts. Conceptual confusion around what implicit bias is contributes to misunderstanding. Bridging these gaps is the key to understanding when and why antibias interventions will succeed or fail. Notably, there are multiple distinct pathways to biased behavior, each of which requires different…

  • Making America great for whom: How Trump’s Presidency affected fit and national identity among targets of bias

    Open AccessKatharina Block, Audrey Aday et al.ARTICLESelf and Identity2022

    Can a politician cue national identity and fit? Given that Trump’s rhetoric often signaled the devaluation of certain groups, we examined this across three pre-registered studies . In Study1 (2017), targets of Trump’s rhetoric reported less social fit, greater social identity threat, and expected increased discrimination . In Study2 (2017), marginalized targets reported less fit and American identification as well as greater threat and discrimina…

  • The misjudgment of men: Does pluralistic ignorance inhibit allyship

    Lucy De Souza, Toni SchmaderARTICLEJournal of Personality and Social…2022Cited by: 7

    (Miller & McFarland, 1991; Prentice, 2007; Prentice & Miller, 1993) inhibits allyship. We first hypothesized that, if men rarely enact allyship toward women (e.g., in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM] fields), people will underestimate men's beliefs that sexism is problematic. Second, these misperceptions might then predict men's (and women's) own inaction, despite their private beliefs about gender bias. Additionally, men …

  • The Future of Women in Psychological Science

    Open AccessJune Gruber, Jane Mendle et al.ARTICLEPerspectives on Psychological…2021

    There has been extensive discussion about gender gaps in representation and career advancement in the sciences. However, psychological science itself has yet to be the focus of discussion or systematic review, despite our field’s investment in questions of equity, status, well-being, gender bias, and gender disparities. In the present article, we consider 10 topics relevant for women’s career advancement in psychological science. We focus on issu…

  • Psychometric Properties and Correlates of Precarious Manhood Beliefs in 62 Nations

    Open AccessJennifer K Bosson, Paweł Jurek et al.ARTICLEJournal of Cross-Cultural…2021

    Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies and with country-level indices of gender equality and human development. Using data …

  • Climate change: An increase in norms for inclusion predicts greater fit and commitment for women in STEM

    Open AccessWilliam M Hall, Toni Schmader et al.ARTICLEGroup Processes & Intergroup…2021Cited by: 1References: 13

    In male-dominated STEM fields, workplace culture is often cited as a factor for women’s attrition. In the present research, we used longitudinal field data to examine how changes in the perceived normative support for gender-inclusive policies and practices over 6 months relate to changes in women’s and men’s experiences of fit and commitment to their organization. Longitudinal analyses of survey data from a sample of 181 engineers revealed that …