That was hard!: examining the effects of test instructions and content on women's mathematics performance under stereotype threat

Abstract

Previous research on social facilitation suggested that women's mathematics stereotype threat might be alleviated by components of the test itself (Bond, 1982). To test this hypothesis, in Experiment 1, we primed the stereotype about women's math performance, and then gave men and women a difficult math test. In one condition, the format of the math test was intended to lead participants to believe that their performance was good, and in the other condition, the format of the math test was intended to lead participants to believe their performance was poor. Stereotype threatened women who believed they performed poorly on the test actually performed no worse than stereotype threatened women who thought they performed well. In Experiment 2, we primed the stereotype about women's poor math performance, and then gave the men and women a math test. In one condition, the majority of the math items were relatively easy, with some difficult items embedded. In a second condition, the majority of the math items were difficult, including items that matched those used in the first condition. We found that stereotype threatened women performed better on the matched items embedded in an easy test, than did stereotype threatened women completing the same items embedded in a difficult test. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.