Can Short Psychological Interventions Affect Educational Performance? Revisiting the Effect of Self-Affirmation...

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Education
• Social Sciences

Background:

• Significant resources are allocated to improving educational achievement and reducing the gender gap in science.
• Previous research indicated a 15-minute self-affirmation intervention dramatically reduced this gender gap in 2010.

Purpose of the Study:

• To reanalyze the original data from the 2010 self-affirmation intervention study.
• To critically evaluate the reported findings regarding the gender gap in science.

Main Methods:

• Reanalysis of the original dataset from the 2010 intervention.
• Investigation of interaction effects between self-affirmation and gender.
• Specification-curve analyses across over 1,500 potential model specifications.

Main Results:

• The self-affirmation intervention did not improve women's performance.
• A negative effect on men's performance was observed, contributing to the interaction effect.
• Covariate-adjusted analyses indicated the gap reduction was limited to a small subgroup.
• Specification-curve analyses showed that significant interaction effects were rare, and improvements among women were minimal.

Conclusions:

• The original claims of self-affirmation effectively reducing the science gender gap are not supported by a rigorous reanalysis of the data.
• The intervention's effects were not as hypothesized, showing no benefit for women and a detrimental effect for men.
• The robustness of the original findings is questionable due to methodological limitations and the instability of results across different statistical models.