Another reason to throw out that “Math is Hard” Barbie Doll
Posted
October 20, 2006 at
7:25 am by
Andrea
Researchers at the University of British Columbia have reported on an experiment that demonstrates that when girls are told they are naturally worse at math, they perform worse on tests.
As one researcher said:
“We told one group of women a made-up story about scientists discovering a math gene on the Y (male) chromosome, and those women got only half as many answers correct as the others ???‚¬??? possibly because they choked under the pressure,” said UBC psychology professor Steven Heine, whose study with PhD student Ilan Dar-Nimrod was published yesterday in Science magazine.
“But the women who were told there is no genetic difference in math ability between men and women did better, possibly because it’s liberating to learn you don’t have a genetic disadvantage.”
CNN also reported on the story (see? I do read news sites besides the TO Star!) and had more details on how the study was administered:
Heine and doctoral student Ilan Dar-Nimrod wanted to see how people are affected by stereotypes about themselves. They divided more than 220 women into four groups and administered math and reading comprehension tests between 2003 and 2006. Their results are reported in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.
The women were given a math test, then asked to read an essay, and then given a second math exam.
In two groups the women averaged between five and 10 correct answers out of 25 math questions. In the other two they averaged between 15 and 20 correct.
The women in the lower-scoring groups read essays that either contended that there is a genetic difference between men and women in math ability, or discussed the images of women in art — a reading which did not discuss math but was designed to remind them of being female.
Those two groups not only fell short of the other women, but their performance declined between the two math tests, meaning they scored lower after reading the essays than before.
It’s a process psychologists call a stereotype threat, Heine explained. “If a member of a group for which there is a negative stereotype is in a position to test the stereotype, they are likely to choke under the pressure.”
What does this mean for parents? In yet another case of Experts Telling Us What We Already Knew, don’t tell your children that they can’t do such-and-such because of their sex. Or their height, or their eye colour, or their skin colour, or whatever. Being reminded of a stereotype that claims one is innately incapable of performing a particular task tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. And if your kids are exposed to these stereotypes from other sources (TV, books, magazines, schools, friends), work with them to understand that the stereotype isn’t true, and even if it was, it wouldn’t necessarily apply to them.
Tags: feminism, gender-differences, girls, math, Social Issues, stereotype-threat, stereotypes |
5 Responses to “Another reason to throw out that “Math is Hard” Barbie Doll”
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1. Amy said:
October 20, 2006 @ 8:52 am
Sometimes the stereotypes come from right inside the home as well. I am awful in math, so much so that it has always been a joke around here. But I am very conscious, and have been since my kids were really small, of saying how lucky they are to NOT be like me in that one way!
Trying to stop the self-fulfilling prophecy!
2. Michele said:
October 20, 2006 @ 9:06 am
From my own school days of being laughed at when taking too long to answer a math question, I had come to this conclusion already. It was hard to be good at something everyone was certain I was horrible at.
Now that I have my own daughter, I see that she’s always done better with language - writing, vocabulary, reading…so I’ve considered that certain people (not necessarily certain sexes) just seem to be more talented in one area (i.e., the arts vs. the sciences).
But I also, naturally, have concluded - again, from these experiences - that to be told you are bad at something is not at all helpful for anyone of any race, age or sex.
3. Andrea said:
October 20, 2006 @ 2:28 pm
That’s exactly what I thought was so interesting about it–the researchers didn’t even try to prove that women and men have the same math abilities. They are very careful to say that they’re not measuring gender differences (though in a lot of the comments I’ve read about hte research on the internet, some people are taking it that way anyway). All they’re saying is–if you tell someone they should be bad at something because of their sex/race/age/whatever, they will perform more poorly than if you told them that the stereotypes aren’t true.
4. Jessica Carlson said:
October 21, 2006 @ 12:54 pm
Has their been a study to find out if one gender is better at math than another? I think that would be interesting.
I think criticism is so powerful. I think kids need to be encouraged at all costs. If you tell a kid they’re not good at something or tell them they’re stupid often enough, they will believe you. Even a single comment can effect a child for the rest of their lives. Children are just not receptive to negativity and are not mature enough to brush off such comments as invalid.
5. Cristina said:
October 23, 2006 @ 12:29 am
So THIS is why I’ve been bad at math all these years!