I’ve been working through a reading list on how social belonging impacts motivation and performance.

One idea that’s really stuck with me so far: the idea that minority groups don’t lack motivation or passion, but rather, withdraw it.

Plenty of women enter STEM fields or gaming because yeah, that shit IS cool. Or racial minorities enter politics wanting to change the world. Low SES folks who want to go into business to support their communities. Etc. That motivation is there! The interest and desire is there.

But when any person enters into a new community, we’re also constantly assessing our fit and our belonging. How much threat exists to us in a community? How much social support? Do our other ingroup members (like family, other first-gen immigrants, other women) support us?

Humans use ambient & active cues to determine whether or not we’ll belong in a community. We look at the posters on the walls, the flavor of jokes made by members, the (im)balance of ingroup/outgroup in the community and ask, “Will I thrive, or be undermined?”

So some of the problem isn’t that, for ex, women aren’t interested in esports. We may be, then we roll up to our local card shop for a tourney & see posters of anime titties & 20 young dudes gathered around a few CRTs shouting how so-&-so is a pussy, & we feel we don’t belong.

My dissertation is examining what factors lead to minorities (gals in gaming) to persist and/or succeed. & it seems obvious now, but something internally clicked for me when I realized: lots of us would, but it’s also reasonable to withdraw your efforts if threat is too high.