Addressing cultural and knowledge barriers to enable preclinical sex inclusive research

Abstract

For over thirty years, research has highlighted a sex bias in early research, risking the validity of biological knowledge. The first step towards change is effectively challenging misconceptions allowing researchers to perceive sex inclusive research as do-able. Utilising the theory of planned behaviour, we quantified researchers intention as a proxy measure for conducting sex inclusive research and explored attitude (value of the behaviour), subjective norm (perceived social pressure) and behavioural control (ability to conduct the behaviour). Additionally, we quantified the knowledge gap, prevalence of misconceptions, and assessed perceived benefits and barriers. We tested a workshop intervention that directly challenges the cultural embedded barriers. The data shows researchers intentions were high, but they had weak statistical knowledge and misunderstandings leading to a perception that inclusive research is prohibitive due to cost and animal use. We demonstrate that participation in the training intervention improved knowledge, altered the perceived barriers and cultural expectations.