Hillary Clinton has long been a role model for women in male-dominated fields, but a new study proves that her status as an inspiration is taken quite literally. After conflicting reports from a 2010 study posited that the self-perception of women was detrimentally affected by high-powered (“elite”) female figures in leadership, a group of social researchers decided to myth-bust the shit out of it.
Their new study, gathered from observing 81 women and 68 Swiss university students make virtual-reality “public speeches” about decreasing student fees, is printed in the May issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. The students took part in a program that placed them in a room with six Sim-like “people” (the control) and four possible variables: some participants received a poster of Bill Clinton in the back of the virtual room, others Hillary Clinton, others Angela Merkel, and some none at all.