Following up on my recent blog entry about gender differences and the acrid backlash I get when I make media appearances on the topic, a recent article in the Globe and Mail covers a study done by the University of Chicago. In this study, women are divided into two groups and one is told they are being tested on math skills, while the other group was told that they were being tested on why men do better at math than women.
The women who were told they were being tested on why men are better than women at math had only 80% accuracy on the test, down from 90% in their pretest.
The women reported being distracted by thoughts such as: "I thought about how boys are usually better than girls at math, so I was trying harder not make mistakes"
Among women not given the stereotype message, performance improved slightly After the math test, the women were also given a standard memory test and it was found that women exposed to the stereotyping also did less well there.
It made me think back to the computer science chair of a university CS program who told me, flat out, that if he were forced to admit more women to his program he'd have to dumb it down so much that no one would be able to even log in. I wonder what messages he sends to the few female students dumb enough to take his courses?
Oh, and if you are male and think that this story isn't of interest to you, you may want to put your hands on a copy of this article the lead researcher has written:
Beilock, S. L., & Carr, T. H. (2005). When high-powered people fail: Working memory and “choking under pressure” in math. Psychological Science, 16, 101-105.
I think that one sounds interesting, too.
Don't worry, be happy....