
“Picture yourself as a stereotypical male” - aresant
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/picture-yourself-as-a-stereotypical-male
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polakallen
Hmmm, I wonder how well this correlates with the placebo effect.

In other words, how deep do the effects of negative stereotyping run? The
titular study shows that with concentrated effort to overcome the limiting
stereotype, the effects of the stereotype can be mostly overcome.

What if you ignored the stereotype, and tried the experiment again, using an
an arbitrary advantage. For instance, if the groups in the study were
performed using a "drug" or other similar placebo.

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erikpukinskis
Well, the same trick (imagine yourself as the other gender) didn't work on the
boys, so it can't be just a matter of "here's a strange experience... Now take
the test." Is that what you are suggesting?

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polakallen
No, I wouldn't necessarily expect the inverse situation to be true (hence why
boys still maintain high scores).

It's not a matter of a "strange" experience, its a matter of expectations
about outcomes. Basically, you could do the same test with men + women, but
instead of having them visualize themselves as a stereotype, have them try a
new "drug" that will supposedly improve their focus and math skills.

Comparing the results of that study with the originals will likely lead to
some very interesting observations, no matter the result.

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erikpukinskis
I see. Yes, so any kind of expectation of performance enhancement might
counteract the pre-existing expectation of performance detriment.

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tedmiston
Well that was interesting, if longwinded.

tl;dr: (As you might have anticipated) Women who are primed to imagine
themselves as a man perform statistically the same as men. This has
implications for other standardized tests too. When people (subconsciously)
underperform to confirm to a (negative) stereotype of some part of their
identity, it's called stereotype threat. A similar effect occurs, e.g., when a
woman is in an engineering class surrounded by men.

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shadowbanin5
Well this is interesting: "related to a largely subconscious apprehension
about confirming the given negative stereotype" All whites are racist, all men
hate women are sexual predators and wife beaters... Maybe progresives should
read about this before spreading their bs?

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erikpukinskis
All blacks are racist too. It's not a big deal. We're not trying to tell you
you're a bad person. We're trying to say "this is normal and you're not worse
than anyone else, but we do need to acknowledge the problem so we can mitigate
it."

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nickysielicki
If I asked Michelle if there were any positives of our gender bias, in any
way, across all of western society, what do you think her response would be?

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erikpukinskis
"Absolutely, yes"

