How You See It Matters: The Role of Perspective Taking On Receiving Negative Feedback In A Stereotyped Realm.

Abstract

Women remain underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, perhaps in part because of the prevalent experience of stereotype threat. Stereotype threat leads to a ruminative cycle of negative thoughts and emotions resulting in decreased performance and motivation. It is expected that adopting a distanced self-perspective can disrupt this ruminative cycle and buffer the downstream negative effects of stereotype threat. Study 1 tests this by asking college women of all majors to adopt a self-distanced perspective while completing a math exam that created stereotype threat. Study 1 suggests that adopting a self-distanced perspective can increase women’s motivation and performance on a math exam. Study 2a aimed to replicate these effects among a sample of women highly invested in the STEM realm and to extend the findings to strength of STEM identity and commitment to future plans in STEM. Generally, adopting a self-distanced perspective led to increases in motivation in both solvable and unsolvable math exam problems, self-reported strength of STEM identity, and commitment to future plans. Study 2b sought to understand how the presence of stereotype threat interacted with self-perspective by examining the motivation and performance of STEM men while utilizing a self-distanced perspective. Contrasting Studies 2a and Study 2b demonstrated that self-distancing influenced motivation only for those experiencing stereotype threat. Study 3 examined the mechanism through which adopting a self-distanced perspective disrupted the ruminative cycle associated with stereotype threat. A thought listing task was utilized to gain insight into the thoughts and feelings women had while adopting different self-perspectives after receiving negative feedback. Women who adopted a self-distanced perspective reported significantly fewer internal and external attributions about the negative feedback they received. Study 4 assessed the influence that adopting a self-distanced perspective can have on protecting available working memory during a recall task. Female college students across all majors who adopted a self-distanced perspective demonstrated increased working memory directly following the self-perspective manipulation. Overall, adopting a self-distanced perspective was found to mitigate many of the negative effects of stereotype threat. Implications for use of self-distancing as a tool to combat stereotype threat are discussed.