Quantcast
ZME Science
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    Menu
    Natural Sciences
    Health
    History & Humanities
    Space & Astronomy
    Technology
    Culture
    Resources
    Natural Sciences

    Physics

    • Matter and Energy
    • Quantum Mechanics
    • Thermodynamics

    Chemistry

    • Periodic Table
    • Applied Chemistry
    • Materials
    • Physical Chemistry

    Biology

    • Anatomy
    • Biochemistry
    • Ecology
    • Genetics
    • Microbiology
    • Plants and Fungi

    Geology and Paleontology

    • Planet Earth
    • Earth Dynamics
    • Rocks and Minerals
    • Volcanoes
    • Dinosaurs
    • Fossils

    Animals

    • Mammals
    • Birds
    • Fish
    • Reptiles
    • Amphibians
    • Invertebrates
    • Pets
    • Conservation
    • Animals Facts

    Climate and Weather

    • Climate Change
    • Weather and Atmosphere

    Geography

    Mathematics

    Health
    • Drugs
    • Diseases and Conditions
    • Human Body
    • Mind and Brain
    • Food and Nutrition
    • Wellness
    History & Humanities
    • Anthropology
    • Archaeology
    • Economics
    • History
    • People
    • Sociology
    Space & Astronomy
    • The Solar System
    • The Sun
    • The Moon
    • Planets
    • Asteroids, Meteors and Comets
    • Astronomy
    • Astrophysics
    • Cosmology
    • Exoplanets and Alien Life
    • Spaceflight and Exploration
    Technology
    • Computer Science & IT
    • Engineering
    • Inventions
    • Sustainability
    • Renewable Energy
    • Green Living
    Culture
    • Culture and Society
    • Bizarre Stories
    • Lifestyle
    • Art and Music
    • Gaming
    • Books
    • Movies and Shows
    Resources
    • How To
    • Science Careers
    • Metascience
    • Fringe Science
    • Science Experiments
    • School and Study
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

Home → Science

The diversity paradox in science: minority groups produce more scientific novelty, but their work is often overlooked

A new analysis finds that underrepresented scholars actually outperform the majority of their peers.

Mihai Andrei by Mihai Andrei
August 19, 2020
in Science

A team analyzing data from almost all PhD graduates in the US over the past 30 years find that underrepresented groups are more likely to publish innovative research — and yet, they are less likely to earn academic positions and their innovations are more often overlooked.

Image credits: Trust “Tru” Katsande.

The diversity paradox has been discussed beforehand in different contexts. It’s expressed in slightly different ways, but the main idea is this: diversity breeds innovation, yet the groups that bring diversity tend to have less successful careers.

A new study wanted to see whether the diversity paradox also holds for scientists — spoiler alert, it does.

A team led by Bas Hofstra at Stanford University analyzed 1.2 million US doctoral recipients, following their careers into publishing and faculty positions. They used machine learning to predict people’s gender and race based on their name. This wasn’t exactly perfect and was particularly challenging for nonbinary gender, but overall, researchers expect the accuracy to be extremely high (based on a record of names, 95% of the names in the study were distinctive).

The participants were split into three racial groups: white, Asian, and underrepresented (which gathered minorities such as Hispanics, African Americans, Native Americans, and any other category not in the first three).

Researchers tried to quantify the innovation, researchers looked at 3 things:

  • general novelty (the number of new ideas brought in);
  • impactful novelty (how many mentions, not citations, the papers received in the future);
  • distal novelty (linking existing ideas and combining them in new ways).

Researchers found those novel contributions by gender and racial minorities are less likely to be mentioned, even when they are equally impactful. Furthermore, equally impactful contributions of gender and racial minorities are less likely to result in successful scientific careers than for majority groups.

“These results suggest there may be unwarranted reproduction of stratification in academic careers that discounts diversity’s role in innovation and partly explains the underrepresentation of some groups in academia,” the researchers note.

The authors also report that minorities produced more distal innovation than their peers, connecting ideas in new ways — which may explain a part of this effect, as these new ways are harder to accept and understand for others in science. These are the big breakthroughs, the frameworks that pull ideas from different fields together and create new theories. It is concerning that distal novelty in general, is inversely related to impactful novelty, as the study found.

In a sense, this means that for scientists it can be dangerous to be truly innovative, and minorities are less afraid — and paradoxically, they’re more likely to be punished for it.

Overall, this is signaling that minorities play an important and underappreciated role in science, the researchers conclude.

“These results suggest that the scientific careers of underrepresented groups end prematurely despite their crucial role in generating novel conceptual discoveries and innovation. Which trailblazers has science missed out on as a consequence?”

The study was published in PNAS.

Was this helpful?
Thanks for your feedback!
Related posts:
  1. Female scientists often overlooked compared to male counterparts
  2. Lyme disease has an often overlooked symptom: hair loss
  3. There are more studies than ever, but innovation is lagging. The paradox of contemporary science
  4. Scientists urge ban on AIs designed to predict crime, Minority Report-style
  5. Americans vastly overestimate the size of the gay minority in the USA, and this could influence gay rights

ADVERTISEMENT
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • More
  • About Us

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

Don’t you want to get smarter every day?

YES, sign me up!

Over 35,000 subscribers can’t be wrong. Don’t worry, we never spam. By signing up you agree to our privacy policy.

✕
ZME Science News

FREE
VIEW