Hostile environments, stereotype threat, and math performance among undergraduate women

This study examined the impact of hostile environments and stereotype threat on women’s math performance. A hostile environment was created with a derogatory cartoon related to women's math ability. Stereotype threat was removed by informing women participants that “men and women perform equally” on the math test. Results showed that hostile environments and stereotype threat significantly interacted leading to differential math performance for number of math problems attempted and answered correctly. Additionally, women in hostile and stereotype threat conditions experienced differential emotional reactions during the math test. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical importance. This article was based on the first author’s Master’s thesis. Parts of this study were presented at the American Psychological Society 10th Annual Conference (1998) in Washington D.C. The authors would like to thank David Mueller, Jason Joly, and Chris Termini for their help in collecting and entering data. We would also like to thank Eddie Clark and Michael Leippe for their helpful feedback and guidance on this paper.