Just read about "Stereotype Threat" and am fascinated to see how much of an effect that this can have on peoples' performance!
Stereotype threat is a well studied social psychology theory that states that peoples' performance can be negatively affected by anxiety in situations that they have the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group.
Scientists have shown that just by framing the context of a test differently can impact how well a group of people perform at the same tasks.
Interestingly this effect can be enhanced when:
- the subject really wants to do well
- the difficulty of the task is increased
- the subject strongly identifies with the stereotyped group
- the subject has experienced discrimination due to these stereotypes
Within the context of the topic of Women In IT, which is one of interest to me, this could be very relevant to, in part, explain the gender disparity seen within the industry as experiencing "Stereotype Threat" can lead to lower performance, diminished confidence and losing interest in the relevant area.
This is interesting as, unlike many other theories, it suggests that there may be less women in IT because of the women themselves. Ignoring the fact that the stereotype exists in the first place, which is beyond the control of any individual, maybe understanding stereotype threat and its potential impacts, can be the first step to overcoming it. Studies have shown that in some cases, just knowing about stereotype threat is good enough to eliminate it.
It is certainly worth a read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_threat
