Whether Informing Participants with High Self-Relevance of Gender Stereotype Alleviates Stereotype Activation Threat

Abstract

Females, as a minority group, experience social inequalities relative to males in most societies. Part of the inequalities originates from gender-stereotypical thoughts, which impose threats and anxiety on females, worsening their performances. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between the self-relevance level of the stereotypical traits and the performance improvement under the informing women about stereotype threat. Female participants finished a gender role orientation inventory and were exposed to gender stereotype threats before the two-dimensional mental orientation task. The performance of the task was measured by reaction time and the number of correct answers. The participants in the teaching-intervention condition were additionally informed that gender stereotype threat could interfere with their spatial performance. Results showed that women with female gender role orientation performed worse than those without. However, no relation between gender role orientation and teaching-intervention was found. The results suggest a potential problem under the two-dimensional mental rotation tasks and provide future studies with further suggestions.