Stereotype threat can vary in source, with targets being threatened at the individual and/or group level. This study specifically examined the role of self-reputational threat in women's underperformance in mathematics. A pilot study showed that women report concerns about experiencing self-reputational threat that are distinct from group threat in the domain of mathematics. In the main study, we manipulated whether performance was linked to the self by asking both men and women to complete a math test using either their real name or a fictitious name. Women who used a fictitious name, and thus had their self unlinked from the math test, showed significantly higher math performance and reported less self-threat and distraction, relative to those who used their real names. Men were unaffected by the manipulation. These findings suggest that women's impaired math performance is often due to the threat of confirming a negative stereotype as being true of the self. The implications for understanding the different types of threats faced by stereotyped groups, particularly among women in math settings, are discussed.
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Original Articles
L'eggo My Ego: Reducing the Gender Gap in Math by Unlinking the Self from Performance
Shen Zhang Department of Psychology , The University of Wisconsin , Whitewater , WI , USA Correspondencezhangs@uww.eduView further author information, Toni Schmader Psychology Department , University of British Columbia , Vancouver , BC , Canada & William M. Hall Psychology Department , University of British Columbia , Vancouver , BC , Canada
Shen Zhang Department of Psychology , The University of Wisconsin , Whitewater , WI , USA Correspondencezhangs@uww.edu
View further author information
, Toni Schmader Psychology Department , University of British Columbia , Vancouver , BC , Canada & William M. Hall Psychology Department , University of British Columbia , Vancouver , BC , Canada Pages 400-412
Received 19 May 2011
Accepted 13 Apr 2012
Published online: 17 May 2012
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