O'Brien &
Crandall, 2003
This experiment tested whether performance on tasks
under stereotype threat mirror the effects of arousal
demonstrated in other domains. Specifically, it
has been shown that arousal tends to decrease
performance on difficult tasks but to increase
performance on simple tasks. Male and female students
were told they would complete a series of math tests
that either have shown gender differences (stereotype
threat for women) or have not shown gender differences (control). The difficulty of the tests were varied so that half of
the participants completed an easy set of math problems
and the other half completed a set of difficult
problems. Stereotype threat improved performance
of women on the easy set of problems but harmed
performance on the difficult item set. Men were
unaffected by the stereotype threat manipulation.
These results are compatible with accounts of stereotype
threat that point to a central role for arousal. Back to top | Previous
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