Historically, men have outperformed women on exams in fields of science, technology, engineering and math, but things start to change now - women could perform much better and narrow this gender gap through a self-affirmation writing exercise, according to a new research。
From 399 male and female students, researchers from the University of Colorado asked a selected group to write about personally important values selected from a list (including "relationships with friends and family," "gaining knowledge") during the 15-minute writing exercise. Other students were placed into a control group and asked to write about their least important values and to explain why they might be important to other people。
At the end of the 15-week course, the gap between male and female academic performance had narrowed for the women who had taken part in the values affirmation exercise. At the end of the course, about 56 percent of women in the control group had earned a C. But among the women who performed the affirmation exercise, the Cs decreased to 41 percent。
The stereotype that men are better than women at science could put pressure on women, according to the researchers, which could lead to poorer outcomes for these women. The writing exercise likely buffered against the threat, the researchers found。
"These results tell us that writing self-affirming essays improved the affirmed women's exam performances by alleviating their anxiety related to being seen in light of negative stereotypes about women in science," said the study researcher Akira Miyake from the University of Colorado。