The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctors says: "It's a girl."
- Shirley Chisholm
I was doing a literature search for a research proposal and I came across a most fascinating study. Published in 1999 in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (volume 35, pages 4-28), it documents research performed by Steven Spencer, Claude Steele and Diane Quinn regarding something they call stereotype threat. They define stereotype threat as "the experience of being in a situation where one faces judgment based on societal stereotypes about one's group..."
It's really a fascinating study - one that every minority should read. To summarize what was a very involved study, the researchers found that when men and women took an easy math test, they scored about the same. But when the test was difficult, women scored significantly lower than men.
This might make you think, "Aha - so it's true that men are better at math than women!" But you'd be wrong. Because in a second portion of the study, the researchers showed that stereotype threat was the real culprit behind the significant difference in performance. In this second study, all groups were given the difficult math test. But some groups were told ahead of time that previous tests had shown gender differences (thereby reinforcing the stereotype threat), and other groups were told that the test had never shown any gender differences in the past.
- The groups in which the stereotype threat was reinforced showed a significant difference (almost 20%) in scores between men and women.
- In the groups who were told no gender differences existed, the scores for men and women were almost identical.
Fascinating, isn't it? So the next time you hear someone tell you men are simply better at math, or some other ignorant stereotype, don't believe them, and certainly don't let it impact your own performance!
