4 ms·

The paper is paywalled so I can only read the abstract, but I am super curious to learn how the researchers were able to confidently determine the male students

The paper is paywalled so I can only read the abstract, but I am super curious to learn how the researchers were able to confidently determine the male students' rationale. The researchers claim that stereotype threat caused the male students to perform worse on the reading test when the students were not told the test was a game. How did the researchers figure this out without even asking the students? They are so certain of this conclusion that they put it in the title of the paper. It's amazing how much they could infer from test scores alone. I'm curious to read the paper to determine how they were able to rule out competitiveness, confidence, and every other explanation of the results.

kuschku 11y ago
Regarding the paywall: http://www.sciencedirect.com.sci-hub.cc/science/article/pii/S0022103116301202 http://www.sciencedirect.com.sci-hub.cc/science/article/pii/...
- 131hn 11y ago
  hmmm, so THAT's how it can be used for ! Thank you for the link.
kaitai 11y ago
Asking the students wouldn't help -- very few of us are aware of our unconscious beliefs, especially since they are often in conflict with our conscious beliefs. Asking the students might be an interesting side project on awareness among 9-year-olds, but it won't shed any light on stereotype threat, which encompasses confidence anyway (that's one of the mechanisms). After all, if you can get Asian women in the US to score significantly better and then significantly worse on a math test by first reminding them "Asians are good at math" and then "girls are bad at math", do you think they're going to be able to report on that "rationale"? And if they're aware of it, won't they subvert the whole experiment by using other sophisticated techniques like (1) externalizing difficulty ("that researcher is just a jerk who doesn't know anything!"), (2) reminding themselves of their complex self-identities and membership in several groups ("I'm a complex person; gender stereotypes are societal constructs; and remember, I'm Asian and I'm good at math -- let's use this stereotype for personal good!"), and (3) using previous teachers' communication of high standards and assurance of capability, along with some role models, to blow that test out of the water and confound all the study results? (All of the above are techniques to combat stereotype threat that have been studied and found somewhat to very effective.)

kuschku 11y ago

Regarding the paywall: http://www.sciencedirect.com.sci-hub.cc/science/article/pii/S0022103116301202 http://www.sciencedirect.com.sci-hub.cc/science/article/pii/...

131hn 11y ago
hmmm, so THAT's how it can be used for ! Thank you for the link.

kaitai 11y ago

Asking the students wouldn't help -- very few of us are aware of our unconscious beliefs, especially since they are often in conflict with our conscious beliefs. Asking the students might be an interesting side project on awareness among 9-year-olds, but it won't shed any light on stereotype threat, which encompasses confidence anyway (that's one of the mechanisms). After all, if you can get Asian women in the US to score significantly better and then significantly worse on a math test by first reminding them "Asians are good at math" and then "girls are bad at math", do you think they're going to be able to report on that "rationale"? And if they're aware of it, won't they subvert the whole experiment by using other sophisticated techniques like (1) externalizing difficulty ("that researcher is just a jerk who doesn't know anything!"), (2) reminding themselves of their complex self-identities and membership in several groups ("I'm a complex person; gender stereotypes are societal constructs; and remember, I'm Asian and I'm good at math -- let's use this stereotype for personal good!"), and (3) using previous teachers' communication of high standards and assurance of capability, along with some role models, to blow that test out of the water and confound all the study results? (All of the above are techniques to combat stereotype threat that have been studied and found somewhat to very effective.)