Background: Students from historically underrepresented communities in computer science (CS) report being told that their successes are due to special treatment based on their gender and/or racial identity. We operationalized this dismissal as students reporting that others’ attributed their success to special treatment or luck rather than competence. Prior work suggests that this microaggression may negatively influence student’s self evaluation.

Purpose: We investigate the extent to which computing majors report hearing dismissal and the relationship it has with their self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and plans to persist.

Methods: Using linear regressions, we analyzed 4,327 CS majors’ survey responses from 221 institutions in the U.S. to determine the extent to which there is a relationship between dismissal and students’ computing self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and plans to persist in CS.

Findings: Students who identify as women, Black, and/or Asian were predicted to report the dismissal more often than men and white students respectively. The dismissal significantly and negatively predicts students’ self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and plans to persist in CS. For non-binary students, dismissal had an additionally negative relationship on their sense of belonging.

Implications: Our results elucidate the negative influence of dismissal on CS student outcomes and compels further research to improve the culture and interactions in computing to eliminate the prevalence of this harmful microaggression.