最新研究挑战传统：男生学理科未必有优势

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。

美国“趣味科学”网站29日报道称，长久以来，男性在科技、工程学以及数学领域一直处于优势地位，但风水也可以轮流转——最新一项研究表明，通过自我肯定性质的写作练习，女性也可以在理工领域表现不错，性别差异得以缩小。

美国科罗拉多大学的研究人员从399位男女学生中抽出一组，要求他们从一份话题清单(话题包括“和朋友家人的关系”以及“获得知识”等)选择话题并在15分钟的写作练习中笔述个人重要价值观。另外一些学生被编成控制组，他们须写出自认为最不重要的价值观，并且须努力说明自己为何对于别人是重要的。

15周的训练课程接近尾声，参与价值肯定练习的女生在理工学业成绩上与男生差距有所减小。截至训练期末，控制组中大约56%的女生所得成绩仅为C。但是在那些参与价值肯定训练的女生中，得C者仅占了41%。

研究人员称，男生比女生理科好的传统看法给女生带来了心理压力，从而导致她们成绩更加不理想。研究人员分析道，该写作练习很有可能缓冲了这种心理威胁。

“这些研究结果告诉我们，写一些自我肯定性质的东西能够提高被肯定女生的考试成绩，因为这样做能够减轻‘女生理科不行’这一负面看法对她们造成的压力，”同样来自科罗拉多大学的研究人员阿基拉说道。 （实习编辑：顾萍）