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Math = male, me = female, therefore math not = me
Brian A Nosek1, Mahzarin R Banaji, Anthony G Greenwald
1Department of Psychology, Yale University, USA. nosek@virginia.edu
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|June 29, 2002
Summary
College women show negative attitudes toward math and science due to implicit gender stereotypes. Associating the self with female identity and math with male identity hinders women's connection to mathematics, impacting their preferences.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Gender Studies
Background:
- College students, particularly women, exhibit implicit negativity towards math and science compared to arts and language.
- Social group membership and gender stereotypes significantly influence attitudes and identification with mathematics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between group membership, gender identity, gender stereotypes, and attitudes toward mathematics in college students.
- To understand how implicit associations (math = male) affect implicit and explicit math attitudes for men and women.
Main Methods:
- Utilized implicit measures to assess attitudes and stereotype associations.
- Examined the influence of group membership (female), group identity (self = female), and gender stereotypes (math = male).
Main Results:
- Stronger implicit math = male stereotypes correlated with more negative implicit and explicit math attitudes among women.
- Conversely, stronger implicit math = male stereotypes were linked to more positive attitudes for men.
- Women, even in math-intensive majors, struggled to associate math with the self when 'self' was linked to 'female' and 'math' to 'male'.
Conclusions:
- Social group membership and prevailing gender stereotypes create both opportunities and constraints on personal preferences in academic fields.
- Implicit biases and self-identity associations play a crucial role in shaping attitudes towards STEM subjects, particularly for women.