Physics Study

Rachel Walla
There is a well-known stereotype in this culture that men tend to be better students in math and science than women. It is hard to deny that there’s truth to this, especially looking around an engineering campus and seeing the majority of students are males. But students at Colorado State University recently questioned whether men really were more inclined to excel in these subjects. They believed women had the mental capacity to excel and were merely experiencing a stereotype threat, meaning they believed the stereotype and therefore, their performance suffered.

How they set out to prove this was to do short, writing essays at the beginning of the class in which each student was supposed to express his or her feelings on topics such as relationships and values. Originally when I heard this, I felt very stereotyped myself. I thought it was supposed to show that women need to express their feelings before every physics class in order to handle the subject matter. Then, I figured the test must have been designed by men. My bad on stereotypes too I guess. However, it wasn’t getting pent up feelings off their chests that helped female students, according to the researchers. It was the act of self-affirmation and centering the thoughts of students on their own beliefs that made the stereotype threat less serious. Results showed that this hugely helped most female students; their test scores were substantially boosted. C students on average went to B students and overall the ladies in the class showed a better grasp of the material. Conversely, other studies have shown that when students read a sentence stating that men and women have equal abilities in math and science before taking a physics test, those who read the sentence have higher scores. In an interesting twist, women who believe in this stereotype the most are the most improved by these exercises, demonstrating that we tend to live our beliefs. Another factor contributing to women’s lower test scores was also postulated to be less high-school level math and physics as well. With these factors together it should be easier to see that women aren’t less adept in the subject matter, we just think we are so we test that way.
The biggest thing to take away from all this is the knowledge that if you believe the stereotype it will hold more weight and the gravity of the situation will force your test scores in a more negative direction. If you allow your beliefs to be fluid and thoughts to be less dense you may find your test scores buoyed up until they reach equilibrium with our male counterparts. In other words, try to forget the stereotype and focus on yourself as an individual and you never know, maybe your test scores will improve too.