Still a Man in a Lab Coat? A Scoping Review on the Stereotypical Scientist

This study reviews 106 papers selected using rigorous criteria from the Scopus database to explore the societal beliefs about scientists, thus providing a timely and comprehensive view of their social representation, that is, the stereotypical scientist. We charted the key findings using a conceptual framework inspired by the structural approach to the social representation theory. We argue that although certain stereotypical scientist's features persist over time, across cultures, and are reproduced by the media, others have been changing in the last decades; those are distinguished in core and peripheral elements. Within our conceptual framework, we distinguished between core (a stereotypical scientist is a man, a genius, who works in natural and physical sciences fields), which have remained stable, and peripheral elements, which are more susceptible to change (physical appearance and personality traits). As expected, the review unearthed a gendered nature of the stereotypical scientist: despite all the changes that occurred through the years, the stereotypical scientist is still a man. Accordingly, we discuss the findings by highlighting this dimension, aligning with the debate on such disparities in academia and the surging interest in this topic. Finally, this paper constitutes a roadmap for scholars in this field and a guide for further research.