" Inequality results from thousands of individual decisions: do I stick with this hard math class or give up, do I strive to become a doctor or conclude that people like me don’t belong in the occupation? Compounded over thousands of people making their individual decisions, we often miss the signals they are receiving from their social environment that lead them to conclude a worthy pathway is closed to them. Dasgupta’s hopeful but hardheaded book urges us to look carefully at that signaling system and understand how impactful it is and how easy it is to alter. Her scientific experiments show us that slight changes in messaging — that social wallpaper— can have durable positive impacts. Educators, counselors, employers, and policy advocates need to read this book."
Katherine S. Newman, Ph.D.
Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor, University of California, Berkeley & University of California System Provost & Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs
