Aversive Responses to Stereotypic STEM Images Predicts Women’s Long–Term STEM Memories and Underperformance in Math

Social identity and stereotype threat (ST) are situational stressors that increase arousal and negative affect and impair performance when women are outnumbered by men. One consequence of these effects could be that women develop learned aversions towards stigmatized STEM domains. Five studies tested whether stereotypic STEM images (STEMIs) prompt aversive responses that predict ST-like outcomes, including underperformance in ST contexts and more negative ST-oriented memories over time. Using a dot-probe paradigm, Studies 1 and 2 found that women perceived STEMIs as more negatively arousing compared to men, but only ST women exhibited greater arousal responses to STEMIs compared to stereotypic non-STEM images (NonSTEMIs) and underperformed; men in this context showed a similar arousal response to STEMIs and NonSTEMIs and performed better. Study 3 replicated this effect among female STEM majors and linked aversive responses to more negative affect laden memories for the STEM lab experience five weeks later. Using EEG, Study 4 found that enhanced processing of STEMIs presented during an attentional blink task (indexed via increased communication between occipital and prefrontal cortical regions) predicted underperformance on a math test among ST women but marginally better performance among men. Study 5 mitigated ST underperformance effects among women utilizing a dot-probe training paradigm that blunted arousal responses to STEMIs; instructing men to attend to STEMIs facilitated their performance. STEM aversions may thus facilitate ST-like effects, possibly defining what the “threat” in ST is, however, blunting aversions can attenuate these effects when women work alongside men in STEM performance situations.