Separating Implicit Gender Stereotypes regarding Math and Language: Implicit Ability Stereotypes are Self-serving for Boys and Men, but not for Girls and Women

Abstract

We investigated implicit gender stereotypes related to math and language separately, using Go/No-go Association Tasks. Samples were grade 9 adolescents (N = 187) and university students (N = 189) in Germany. Research questions concerned the existence of and gender differences in implicit stereotypes. While typical explicit-stereotyping findings were replicated, implicit math-male stereotypes were found in male, but not in female participants. Females revealed strong language-female stereotypes, whereas males showed language-male counterstereotypes. Thus, females’ implicit math-gender stereotypes were the only ones that did not link own gender to the respective academic domain in a self-serving way. Further, females’ stronger stereotypes were related to lower and males’ to higher scores on constructs related to math ability, corroborating implicit stereotypes’ importance.