Distinguishing between the effects of stereotype priming and stereotype threat on math performance

Abstract

Stereotype threat and stereotype priming have both been shown to impair test performance. Although research suggests threat-based concerns distinguish the experience of threat from priming (Marx & Stapel, 2006), it is not clear whether these psychological phenomena impact performance via similar or distinct mechanisms. The current work demonstrates that priming and threat produce distinctive patterns of performance via different mechanisms. Motivation was found to play a proximal role in the effect of stereotype threat on females’ math performance. Threatened females were motivated to disconfirm the negative stereotype, but performed more poorly because they were more likely than controls to use the incorrect, but prepotent conventional solution approach. Gender-math stereotypes do not incorporate the notion that females are motivated to disconfirm stereotypes. Instead the results are consistent with the argument that participants primed with female gender constructs performed poorly because they withdrew effort.