Attributional gender bias: teachers’ ability and effort explanations for students’ math performance

Research is presented on the attributional gender bias: the tendency to generate different attributions (explanations) for female versus male students’ performance in math. Whereas boys’ successes in math are attributed to ability, girls’ successes are attributed to effort; conversely, boys’ failures in math are attributed to a lack of effort and girls’ failures to a lack of ability. This bias has been shown in previous research to be committed by teachers, parents, and students themselves. The present work sought to investigate whether this bias among secondary school math teachers might be reduced over time through adoption of an incremental theory of intelligence. Findings revealed at baseline, teachers committed the expected bias in reference to their high-achieving students’ math performance. Following exposure to stimuli, teachers in both experimental and control conditions reduced this bias. Unexpectedly, teachers across conditions showed a type of compensation for the bias by reversing stereotypical attributions for girls’ and boys’ successes and failures in math. Further, participants relapsed to the original bias nearly a year later. Findings indicate the potential to modify attributional gender bias, but also the challenges for achieving long-term changes within school contexts and for emphasizing effort beyond ability in math performance.     

Stereotypic explanatory bias: Implicit stereotyping as a predictor of discrimination

Two experiments examined whether a measure of implicit stereotyping based on the tendency to explain Black stereotype-incongruent events more often than Black stereotype-congruent events (Stereotypic Explanatory Bias or SEB) is predictive of behavior toward a partner in an interracial interaction. In Experiment 1 SEB predicted White males’ choice to ask stereotypic questions of a Black female (but not a White male or White female) in an interview. In Experiment 2 the type of explanation (internal or external attribution) made for stereotype-inconsistency was examined. Results showed that White participants who made internal attributions for Black stereotype-incongruent behavior were rated more positively and those who made external attributions were rated more negatively by a Black male confederate. These results point to the potential of implicit stereotyping as an important predictor of behavior in an interracial interaction.