This experiment examined how contextual cues can induce
stereotype threat and reduce one's sense of belonging.
Male and female undergraduates who were majoring in
math, science, and engineering were asked to view a
videotape of a discussion that supposedly took place at
a conference on leadership in the sciences to assess
whether the conference should be hosted by the local
university in the future. The gender composition of the
discussants was varied so that either 75% of the
discussants were males (reflecting approximate sex
differences in obtaining degrees in these fields in the
U.S.) or males and females each represented 50% of the
discussants. Physiological measures of arousal were
collected while the students watched the videotape, and,
later, memory for details in the video and in the
experimental setting was assessed. In terms of
memory performance, women who viewed the video comprised
mostly of men recalled more details about the video and
showed greater recall of science and math items that had
been present in the experimental setting. Woman in this
condition also showed greater skin conductance,
decreases in heartbeat intervals, and greater
sympathetic activation of the cardiovascular system than
did women who watched a gender-balanced video. These
women also reported that they would feel less
comfortable attending the conference and would be less
likely to do so compared with women who watched the
sex-balanced discussion. Men did not differ on any
of these measures as a function of the video they
watched, although they did report greater interest in
attending the conference if it was represented as
gender-balanced. These results suggest that expected
minority status is sufficient to produce stereotype
threat as reflected in attentive vigilance,
physiological arousal, and a reduced sense of belonging.
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