The Gender-Gap Artifact: Women's Underperformance in Quantitative Domains Through the Lens of Stereotype Threat

2004 ◽  
pp. 172-188
Author(s):  
Paul G. Davies ◽  
Steven J. Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Gender Gap

Why Won't Lola Run? An Experiment Examining Stereotype Threat and Political Ambition

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (02) ◽  
pp. 232-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Pruysers ◽  
Julie Blais
Keyword(s):  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Women In Politics ◽  
Political Ambition ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Psychology Literature ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

Among the most well-documented and long-standing gender gaps in political behavior are those relating to political ambition, as men have consistently been shown to express a significantly higher level of political ambition than women. Although this gap is well established, the reasons for the differences between men and women remain largely unknown. One possible explanation is that negative stereotypes about women's political ability are responsible. Stereotype threat, as it is referred to in the psychology literature, is a phenomenon where individuals of a social group suffer cognitive burdens and anxiety after being exposed to negative stereotypes that relate to their identity. These disruptions have been shown to alter attitudes and behavior. In order to test this possibility, we employed an experimental design whereby we randomly assigned 501 undergraduate students into threat and nonthreat conditions. While men exhibited higher levels of political ambition in both conditions, women in the nonthreat condition expressed significantly higher levels of political ambition than those women who were exposed to negative stereotypes. The results of this study therefore suggest that the gender gap in political ambition may be partly explained by negative stereotypes about women in politics.

scholarly journals Gender Differences in Political Knowledge: Bringing Situation Back In

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toni Alexander Ihme ◽  
Markus Tausendpfund
Keyword(s):  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
The Political ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Knowledge Test ◽  
Political Sciences ◽  
New Perspective

AbstractOne of the best-known empirical findings in the political sciences is the gender difference in political knowledge: women show less political knowledge than men. Conventional research argues that this difference is mainly a product of socialization, structural factors, and biology. Our paper brings a new perspective to the explanation of the gender gap in political knowledge. Based on an online survey and an experiment1, we emphasize the relevance of gender stereotypes as a situational pressure that reduces the performance of women in a political knowledge test. Two conclusions emerge from the analysis: First, our results indicate the existence of a negative stereotype related to the political knowledge of women. Second, the activation of gender stereotypes affects performance on a political knowledge test. Consistent with previous research on stereotype threat, our results indicate that the performance of men on a political knowledge test is affected by gender stereotypes.

Sticks, Stones, Words, and Broken Bones

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Wei
Keyword(s):  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Important Determinant ◽  
National Assessment ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Broken Bones ◽  
Math Scores ◽  
Natural Field Experiment ◽  
Stereotype Priming ◽  
Large Representative

Stereotype threat is frequently purported to be an important determinant of gender gaps in math. Unlike prior studies, which mostly occur in lab settings, I use data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—a large, representative assessment of U.S. children—where through a design quirk, students are randomly assigned test blocks, some of which include gender prime questions while others do not. I exploit this natural field experiment by comparing the gender gap in math scores of students receiving primes to those who do not. I find that girls actually perform better relative to boys for some primes (stereotype reactance) and no worse for others. These findings suggest that stereotype priming effects are relevant outside of lab settings, and that consistent with findings from a companion lab experiment and other lab studies from the stereotype literature, the effects appear to depend on the exact phrasing of the primes.

scholarly journals The impact of stereotype threat on gender gap in introductory physics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandru Maries ◽  
Nafis I. Karim ◽  
Chandralekha Singh
Keyword(s):  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Introductory Physics ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Text-mining forma mentis networks reconstruct public perception of the STEM gender gap in social media

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Stella
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Gender Disparity ◽  
Women In Science ◽  
Textual Data ◽  
Personal Skills ◽  
Female Scientists

Mindset reconstruction maps how individuals structure and perceive knowledge, a map unfolded here by investigating language and its cognitive reflection in the human mind, i.e., the mental lexicon. Textual forma mentis networks (TFMN) are glass boxes introduced for extracting and understanding mindsets’ structure (in Latin forma mentis) from textual data. Combining network science, psycholinguistics and Big Data, TFMNs successfully identified relevant concepts in benchmark texts, without supervision. Once validated, TFMNs were applied to the case study of distorted mindsets about the gender gap in science. Focusing on social media, this work analysed 10,000 tweets mostly representing individuals’ opinions at the beginning of posts. “Gender” and “gap” elicited a mostly positive, trustful and joyous perception, with semantic associates that: celebrated successful female scientists, related gender gap to wage differences, and hoped for a future resolution. The perception of “woman” highlighted jargon of sexual harassment and stereotype threat (a form of implicit cognitive bias) about women in science “sacrificing personal skills for success”. The semantic frame of “man” highlighted awareness of the myth of male superiority in science. No anger was detected around “person”, suggesting that tweets got less tense around genderless terms. No stereotypical perception of “scientist” was identified online, differently from real-world surveys. This analysis thus identified that Twitter discourse mostly starting conversations promoted a majorly stereotype-free, positive/trustful perception of gender disparity, aimed at closing the gap. Hence, future monitoring against discriminating language should focus on other parts of conversations like users’ replies. TFMNs enable new ways for monitoring collective online mindsets, offering data-informed ground for policy making.

Stereotype Threat and the Gender Gap in Political Knowledge

2006 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 392-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew S. McGlone ◽  
Joshua Aronson ◽  
Diane Kobrynowicz
Keyword(s):  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Political Knowledge

The Stereotype Threat Effect

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 249-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen Moritz ◽  
Insa Happach ◽  
Karla Spirandelli ◽  
Tania M. Lincoln ◽  
Fabrice Berna
Keyword(s):  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Neuropsychological Performance ◽  
Neurocognitive Deficits ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Memory And Attention ◽  
Threat Effect ◽  
Efficacy Expectations ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Neurocognitive deficits in patients with mental disorders are partially due to secondary influences. “Stereotype threat” denotes the phenomenon that performance is compromised when a participant is confronted with a devaluing stereotype. The present study examined the impact of stereotype threat on neuropsychological performance in schizophrenia. Seventy-seven participants with a self-reported diagnosis of schizophrenia were randomly assigned to either an experimental condition involving stereotype threat activation or a control condition in an online study. Participants completed memory and attention tests as well as questionnaires on motivation, self-efficacy expectations, cognitive complaints, and self-stigmatization. Contrary to our prediction, the two groups showed no significant differences regarding neuropsychological performance and self-report measures. Limitations, such as a possibly too weak threat cue, are discussed and recommendations for future studies are outlined.

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