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Women are not less field independent than men—the role of stereotype threat
Author(s) -
Drążkowski Dariusz,
Szwedo Jakub,
Krajczewska Aleksandra,
Adamczuk Anna,
Piątkowski Krzysztof,
Jadwiżyc Marcin,
Rakowski Adam
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1002/ijop.12238
Subject(s) - stereotype threat , psychology , test (biology) , gender identity , social psychology , stereotype (uml) , identity (music) , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , acoustics , biology , paleontology , physics
Prior research has shown that females are less field independent (FI) than males. However, when gender identity is salient, performance on tests assessing constructs similar to FI may be hindered, because of stereotype threat. This study examined the impact of stereotype threat on gender differences in FI. We expected that (a) reporting one's own gender prior to FI testing and (b) having an opposite‐gender experimenter would activate stereotype threat, and in turn result in lower performance on a test of FI among females. Overall, 170 participants were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions in a between‐participants design varying the participant's gender, experimenter's gender and timing of the gender question (before vs. after test). Results showed that reporting one's gender before the FI test led to lower FI performance among females. Furthermore, females achieved higher FI when experimenters were females and gender questions were administered after the FI test.