Picture a Scientist: Classification Images of Scientists are seen as White, Male, and Socially Inept

Stereotypes and biases towards social categories are often reflected in mental representations of faces. The current study used a two-phase reverse correlation procedure to visualize mental representations of the face of a Scientist, a Hero, a Genius, and a Person. In the first phase, 20 participants completed four blocks of a two-image forced-choice task. In each block, they selected which face out of a pair looked like one of the four categories. The images they selected were averaged to create classification images (CIs) which are proxy images for their mental representations of the four categories. In the second phase of the study, 251 naive participants rated the CIs on a number of valenced and demographic characteristics. We found that the scientist image was rated as the most White and male, which reflects stereotypes about who pursues scientific careers. The scientist image was also rated more negatively than the other CIs on several characteristics, which might reflect negative biases towards scientists as unsociable, poor communicators, and incompetent authority figures, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings extend our understanding of the way social categories are represented, and how the classification image method can be used to uncover stereotypes and attitudes regarding these social categories.