Effects of gender-stereotypical stimuli with different degrees of abstraction on the performance of mathematics task [通常講演]
Yoshitsugu Fujishima and Mai Iwakura
2017 Annual Conference of the Korean Psychological Association 2017年08月 ポスター発表 Sejong University Convention Center, Seoul the Korean Psychological Association
Previous studies found that women performed worse on mathematics when their gender identity was activated. But if female participant is primed with women exemplars, the reverse pattern should emerge because exemplar priming can elicit judgmental contrast by evoking social comparisons. Thirty-one female undergraduates saw picture stimuli and classified them into animal or scenery categories. We used the pictures of faces of ordinary women in the prototype condition, the pictures of female talents in the exemplar condition, and the animals in control condition. They all solved moderately difficult mathematics tasks. Participants in the prototype condition and the exemplar condition performed worse compared to participants in the control condition. Participants might see exemplars as competent and contrasted themselves with exemplars. Or we might not have primed an exemplar but a category about women because we showed plural exemplars.