The role of attributions in alleviating women's mathematics stereotype threat

Abstract

Previous studies (McIntyre, Paulson, & Lord, 2003; McIntyre, Lord, Prestwood, Ten Eyck, & Sadler, 2004) have indicated that positive information about fellow group members helps alleviate the performance disruptions caused by stereotype threat (Steele, 1997). Other studies (Berglas & Jones, 1978; Ross, Amabile, Steinmetz, 1977; Schunk, 1981) have indicated that individuals readily make dispositional attributions for others' performances and use the inferences from such attributions to guide their own performance expectations (Fontaine, 1974). No study, however, has examined the association between stereotype threat and attributional processes. Two experiments examined the influence of attributional processes on alleviating women's mathematics stereotype threat. In Experiment 1, greater alleviation from stereotype threat (better mathematics scores) occurred when women read about other women who were portrayed as succeeding because of internal stable causes (i.e., ability), than when they read about other women who were portrayed as succeeding because of external unstable causes (i.e., political ties). That finding was mediated by internal attributions and ruminative. In Experiment 2, greater alleviation from stereotype threat occurred when women were made aware of other women who scored well at an ambiguous spatial task, than when women who were made aware of their own success at the same task, or than women who received no feedback. The results are consistent with stereotype threat and attribution theories. Possible future directions are also discussed.