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Math is hard! Gender, mathematics, and implicit social cognition
Brian Nosek
Yale University
Collaborators: Mahzarin Banaji and Tony Greenwald
Participation in mathematics
0
20
40
60
80
100
High School Undergraduate Graduate Work
Females Males
Performance in mathematics
• Gender differences in performance emerge over time (Hyde et al., 1988)
Age Cohen’s delementary -.06high school .29College .32SAT-math .40
-1.2
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
12 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 35 39 43 47 51 55 59
Exp
licit
Ra
ting
female male
Cross-sectional explicit attitude comparisons - webData
N = 29,514
Implicit Attitudes toward Math
RAI = (Math+Unpleasant) – (Math+Pleasant)
Math
Unpleasant
Arts
Pleasant
Math
Pleasant
Arts
Unpleasant
-400
-300
-200
-100
0
100
females males
Implicit Attitudes toward Math
d = 1.03
-200
-180
-160
-140
-120
-100
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
12 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 35 39 43 47 51 55 59
Pro
duct
RA
I
female male
Are gender differences in implicit attitudes toward mathematics stable over the lifespan?
Adaptation of Heider’s Balance Theory (1958)
Math
Me
Female
+
-
-
Me
Math Male
+
+
+
Females
Males
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
RA
I in
ms.
females males
Math
Me
Female
Me
Math Male
+Me
Male
Are males masculine and females feminine?
Feminine
Masculine
Me
Female
+
Me
Math Male
+
Math Male+
Math
Me
Female
+
Is mathematics masculine?
FemaleMath -
-300
-250
-200
-150
-100
-50
0
females males
Me
Math Male
+
+Math
+Me
Math
Me
Female
+
-Math
-Me
Do males identify with math more than females do?
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
females males
Implicit measures can predict performance
Relative SAT Performance
Males Females
Explicit Attitudes .40*** .41***
Implicit Attitudes .42*** .24**
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
12 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 35 39 43 47 51 55 59
Pea
rson
's r
N = 26005, Range 429-3211
Correlations between implicit and explicit attitudes toward mathematics
Implicit/explicit attitude dissociations
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
nonmathfemales
nonmath males math females math males
RA
I in
std
. uni
ts
Standarized RAI for implicit attitudes toward math
Standardized RAI for explicit attitudes toward math
Summary
• Attitude differences are strong and stable
• ‘Balance’ present in implicit orientations toward mathematics
• Implicit and explicit math attitudes are related
