14 DAY TRIAL // Indiana University researchers have recently concluded a thorough study on negative stereotypes, which revealed that this phenomenon causes significant repercussions in people they are addressed to. The team says subjecting people to relentless stereotyping can literally impair their ability to learn. For many years, scientists have known that discrimination and easy labeling of people caused things such as poor performance in skill-based task – including driving, for example.
But the new investigation is the first ever to demonstrate that influence also extends to learning abilities. In other words, the Indiana University group managed to prove that the negative influence is exerted even at the time when the skills are learned, a lot earlier than first believed. Social psychologist Robert J. Rydell, who is based at the IU Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, was the leader of the new research effort.
“The effect on learning could be cumulative. If women do not learn relatively simple skills early on, this could spell trouble for them later on when they need to combine a number of more simple skills in new, complicated ways to solve difficult problems. For example, if a young girl does not learn a relatively simple principle of algebra or how to divide fractions because she is experiencing threat, this may hurt her when she has to use those skills to complete problems on geometry, trigonometry, or calculus tests,” says Rydell. His investigation was focused on understanding stereotypes involving women and mathematics, e! Science News reports.
“Women who are good at the skill they are performing are more likely to show stereotype threat because they have more invested in disproving the stereotype and are more distracted by the stereotype,” the expert says. A paper detailing the findings, entitled “Stereotype threat prevents perceptual learning,” appears in the July 26 Early Edition of the esteemed publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). IU experts Richard M. Shiffrin, Kathryn L. Boucher, Katie Van Loo and Michael T. Rydell are the coauthors.
This investigation “points to the importance of creating environments that reduce the impact of stereotype threat during mathematical skill acquisition by women. If creating such an environment is not done, the learning deficits that result could well be cumulative, causing problems that continually worsen as development proceeds,” the team adds.