Sawyer &
Hollis-Sawyer,
2005
This study examined the influence
of individual difference and contextual factors on
performance on a test of cognitive ability. Male and
female university students completed a battery of
personality questionnaires designed to assess
Neuroticism, Extroversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and
Conscientiousness, and a scale to assess belief in the
malleability of intelligence. In addition, the students
were told that the upcoming test was either diagnostic
of general cognitive ability (high stereotype threat) or
that it was an interest measure (low stereotype threat)
and that the test was relevant to acquiring a job as
postal clerk (low face validity) or as a geometry
teacher (high face validity). Variables measured
included test anxiety, perceptions of stereotype threat,
and task performance. Students reported experiencing
greater threat in the stereotype condition, and they
performed more poorly. Path analyses were conducted to
assess the causal relations between variables.
Agreeableness predicted all measures, with higher
agreeableness producing higher stereotype threat,
greater anxiety, and lower test scores. Openness
to Experience was the only other personality predictor
of stereotype threat, with higher levels associated with
greater perceived threat. Belief in the malleability of
intelligence was related to cognitive ability test
scores and stereotype threat belief, with belief in
fixed intelligence producing greater stereotype threat
and poorer performance. These results show that both
individual differences in Agreeableness and beliefs
about the malleability of intelligence can affect the
formation and consequences of stereotype threat.
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