Understanding academic gender gaps is difficult because gender-imbalanced fields differ across many features, limiting researchers’ ability to systematically study candidate causes. In the present preregistered research, we isolate two potential explanations—brilliance beliefs and fixed versus growth intelligence mindsets—by comparing two fields that have inverse gender gaps and historic and topical overlap: philosophy and psychology. Many more men than women study philosophy and vice versa in psychology, with disparities emerging during undergraduate studies. No prior work has examined the contributions of both self-perceptions of brilliance and fixed versus growth mindsets on choice of major among undergraduate students. We assessed field-specific brilliance beliefs, brilliance beliefs about self, and mindsets, cross-sectionally in 467 undergraduates enrolled in philosophy and psychology classes at universities in the United States and Canada via both in-person and online questionnaires. We found support for the brilliance beliefs about the self, but not mindset, explanation. Brilliance beliefs about oneself predicted women’s but not men’s choice of major. Women who believed they were less brilliant were more likely to study psychology (perceived to require low brilliance) over philosophy (perceived to require high brilliance). Findings further indicated that fixed versus growth mindsets did not differ by gender and were not associated with major. Together, these results suggest that internalized essentialist beliefs about the gendered nature of brilliance are uniquely important to understanding why men and women pursue training in different academic fields.

理解学术性别差距很困难，因为性别失衡领域在许多特征上存在差异，限制了研究人员系统研究候选人原因的能力。在目前的预先注册研究中，我们通过比较两个具有反向性别差距和历史和主题重叠的领域：哲学和心理学，分离出两种可能的解释——才华信念和固定与成长智力心态。学习哲学的男性多于女性，而学习心理学的男性则多于女性，本科学习期间就出现了差异。之前的研究还没有研究过本科生的才华自我认知和固定心态与成长心态对专业选择的影响。我们评估了特定领域的才华信念、自我才华信念和心态，通过面对面和在线问卷调查，对美国和加拿大大学的 467 名哲学和心理学课程的本科生进行了横断面调查。我们找到了对自我的卓越信念的支持，但没有找到心态、解释的支持。对自己的卓越信念可以预测女性而非男性的专业选择。那些认为自己不太聪明的女性更有可能学习心理学（被认为需要低聪明才智），而不是哲学（被认为需要高聪明才智）。研究结果进一步表明，固定心态与成长心态并没有因性别而异，并且与专业无关。一起，