Alone or together: The role of gender and social context prior to Aha‐experiences.

Prior research indicates that boys show more interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) than girls do. Given that Aha‐experiences yield positive affect and increase interest, the question arises whether there are gender differences in Aha‐experiences that could help explain the gender differences in interest. Derived from social role theory, we hypothesized that men report having Aha‐experiences alone, whereas women report having Aha‐experiences together with others. In a retrospective survey study comprising three independent samples (N = 899), we conducted chi‐square analyses to explore the relationship of gender, social context (alone; not alone), domain, and situational interest. Across all participants, we found that men were more probably alone and women more probably together with others when they had an Aha‐experience. More fine‐grained analyses revealed that the effect was especially pronounced when the Aha‐experience increased situational interest within STEM or the personal domain. The study suggests that social context played a different role in the occurrence of Aha‐experiences in men and women. We discuss the implications of our findings for STEM instruction at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]