Geek Tragedy?Lack of Diversity in Computer Science

Demographic “Crisis”

• Written about almost as long as the Software “Crisis”.

• 88% of CS graduates are male

• Only 10% of graduates are non-asian minorities, despite making up 30% of the population

• Self-reported reasons to choose another major:– Too “nerdy”– Too male dominated– I am not good with computers

• Geek/Nerd/Fan culture consistently theorized to be a large part of the problem– False Stereotype– True Stereotype

Theoretical Problems• Geek culture is mainstreaming

– Nintendo Wii– Comic book movies

• Most geek culture is demographically more diverse than computer science– Con attendence is almost gender balanced– 1 out of 2 black men own game consoles– Black men are more likely to read comic books than

their caucasian counterparts

• Producer ceiling

Are the Stereotypes true?

• Three populations:– General– Engineering– CS Majors

• Two Stages:– Categorize items (activities, media) as more

likely to be enjoyed by CS or non-CS majors– See how the three populations actually feel

about these items

• Correlation with stereotype:– CS: .122

– Eng: -.01

– Gen: -.05

• CS Majors; correlation was significantly different than the general population

• CS Majors’ correlation was not significantly differen than their fellow engineers

• Stereotype accounted for less than 1% of the variance