Women Athletes' Mental Rotation under Stereotypic Threat

Abstract

This experiment examined whether nullifying a stereotypic threat about sex-related abilities in mental rotation in women athletes increased facility with rotations. Women athletes and nonathletes (N = 64) were told that they would be performing mental rotation presumed to create an implicit stereotypic threat. Then 32 participants learned that the mental rotation tasks required the same abilities as those mastered by athletes, presumed to nullify the stereotypic threat. Participants completed an 8-item Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotation Test and provided reports of ability, experience, and background. Contrary to the hypothesis, athletes receiving nullified instructions performed more poorly than peers who worked under the implicit stereotypic threat, but nonathletes' scores were not affected by the threat. These findings are consistent with the idea that group identification and concomitant worry about representing a group in a positive manner may contribute to responses to stereotypic threat, and that even with explicit nullification of threat, performance may not change.