Targets Believe They Have Less Math Ability in the Stereotype Threat Condi:on Others Believe the Target Has Less Math Ability in the Stereotype Threat Condi:on Increasing the Salience of Nega:ve GenderMath Stereotypes Lowers Percep:ons of Women’s Math Ability No Effect of Stereotype Threat on Others’ Ra:ngs of Others in Their Group Others’ Ra:ngs Do Not Show General Increased Nega:vity Towards the Target in Stereotype Threat Condi:on Results Discussion Background Stereotype threat is the threat of being judged or treated in terms of a stereotype, or the fear that one will inadvertently behave in a manner to confirm a stereotype. Stereotype threat that can be ac:vated in situa:ons that make the group stereotype salient. (Spencer. Steele, and Aronson 2002) Stereotype threat causes women to underperform on difficult math tests. While individual test performance is important for academic success, group projects are an increasingly important component of STEM curricula, and collabora:on is necessary in STEM careers. Due to women’s underrepresenta:on in STEM, they may oVen be the only female in their group. The present research examines how stereotype threat affects the percep8ons and behavior of threatened individuals and of other group members in a group problemsolving task. Methods Assigning Exper8se Stereotype Threat NonThreat Female target par:cipant (blue) in each group completes a volume tutorial before the group task. Manipula8ng Stereotype Threat Assessing Percep8ons of Math Competence AAer the Group Task To what extent would you say ____ fulfilled each of the following roles in the group task? (Math Whiz, Calculator) To what extent would you say each of these traits describes____? (Good at Math) To what extent would you say ____’s contribu:on was due to each of the following? (Natural Math Ability) If you needed help on a math problem how likely would you be to ask ____? (Math Help) • Problems adapted from standardized tests (e.g., SAT, GRE) • Measures quan:ta:ve abili:es • Men tend to perform be]er than women • Puzzles adapted from math game websites • Not a measure of individual math ability • No men:on of gender VS. Stereotype Threat NonThreat This research was supported by a Na:onal Science Founda:on Graduate Research Fellowship awarded to Sarah Grover Contact: [email protected] (Inzlict and BenZeev, 2000; Spencer, Steele and Quinn, 1999) 2 of 4 problems in the group task are volume problems prac:ced in target’s tutorial. Other par:cipants’ (black) tutorials aren’t tested in the group task. Sarah Grover, Tiffany Ito, and Bernade]e Park University of Colorado Boulder Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Summary Implica8ons Poten8al Solu8ons Future Direc8ons Target par8cipants’ (females with volume tutorial) exper8se was recognized in the nonthreat condi8on but it went unno8ced in the stereotype threat condi8on. There was no effect of stereotype threat on how nontargets rated the other non targets in their group. Stereotype threat did not result in a general nega:ve evalua:on of the target, effects were specific to percep8ons of target’s math ability and contribu:on to correctly solving the problems. If women under stereotype threat are evaluated by themselves and others as worse at math, they may miss out on opportuni8es for advancement. Companies may not be able to aQain the full benefit of talented female scien8sts and engineers’ professional exper8se if their environments induce stereotype threat. Stereotype threat is not an intractable problem. A growing body of research demonstrates the many different ways to cul8vate nonthreatening environments and buffer women against stereotype threat including: • Increasing women’s representa:on (Marx & Roman, 2002; Stout et al., 2011) • Providing posi:ve female role models (Dasgupta 2011; Stout et al., 2011) • Emphasizing an incremental view of intelligence (DarNimrod & Heine, 2006; Good, Aronson & Inzlicht, 2003) • Affirming important personal values (Martens et al., 2006; Miyake et al., 2010) Behavioral coding of group videos to examine the effects of stereotype threat on target and other par:cipants’ behavior during the group task. Examine different group composi:ons (e.g., 3 females and 1 male) and more subtle stereotype threat manipula:ons (group composi:on alone vs. task instruc:ons alone). Gather data with groups of STEM majors, for whom stereotype threat is especially relevant. Test stereotype threat interven:ons in group problemsolving context. ** p< .01 *p< .05 †p< .10 All ps > .10, ns All ps > .20, ns ** p< .01 *p< .05 †p< .10 The experimenter gave different task instruc:ons in each condi:on: (n=25 groups ) (n=24 groups )