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LTK:
Via Ars Technica, this study examined how women's self-identities affect their performance on math tests. They had one group of men and women making the test under a fake name, and another making the test under their real name. The women who used a fake name performed better on the math test than those who used their real name, but not the men. The authors say: "These findings suggest that women's impaired math performance is often due to the threat of confirming a negative stereotype as being true of the self."

If I understand that correctly, I think it would generalise to both men and women if they had lower expectations of their performance compared to others. Maybe you could find the same effect with racial stereotyping, both negative and positive.

Also, for your recommended daily intake of mindblowing astrophyical phenomena, I point you to starquakes. STARQUAKES.

Akima:

--- Quote from: LTK on 20 Jul 2013, 14:17 ---If I understand that correctly, I think it would generalise to both men and women if they had lower expectations of their performance compared to others. Maybe you could find the same effect with racial stereotyping, both negative and positive.

--- End quote ---
Is it low expectations of their performance by the test takers that this study illuminates? I gathered that the women were supposed to be put off because their high performance in Maths would somehow reflect badly on them. If true, this reflects very poorly on their social environment.

Carl-E:
When mathematical ignorance is the social norm, then yes, the social environment is to blame. 

Jimor:
Oh boy oh boy oh boy! (I just got the original boxed set of DVDs for my birthday.)
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=gklrONZ51w8

LTK:

--- Quote from: Carl-E on 21 Jul 2013, 01:08 ---When mathematical ignorance is the social norm, then yes, the social environment is to blame. 

--- End quote ---
Shit. It hadn't even occured to me that people might consider having a certain skill a bad thing. That's kind of depressing.

So, when the authors are saying that the women are afraid of confirming a negative stereotype, it's not the stereotype of a woman, but the stereotype of a nerd. Goddamn it, I thought we had at least some progress in moving past that stigma by now.

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