Building on our ongoing metascience work documenting the lack of diversity in psychological research samples, this qualitative study turns to a question that has received less attention: how does this gap affect the undergraduate students who are learning this science in the classroom? Using focus groups with undergraduate psychology students, we examine students’ awareness of the lack of diversity in research samples, how it affects them, and what they would like professors to do about it. Students from minoritized backgrounds in particular described impacts on their sense of belonging, motivation, and career aspirations, with many expressing feelings of frustration and discouragement. At the same time, for some students the gap served as motivation to pursue more inclusive research themselves. Notably, many minoritized students described having come to expect exclusion as the norm, a finding that speaks to just how pervasive the problem is. Students also emphasized the influential role of instructors, calling for greater transparency about sample limitations and more intentional efforts to incorporate diverse research into their teaching. This article, published in Teaching of Psychology, was co-authored by trainees, including Jennifer Figueroa and Valeria Lugo-Martinez (undergraduate students), Daniela Esquivel Cantu (lab manager), Jayda Branch (graduate student), and Clare Thomas (post doc).
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