Neural basis of stereotype-induced shifts in women's mental rotation performance

Abstract

Recent negative focus on women's academic abilities has fueled disputes over gender disparities in the sciences. The controversy derives, in part, from women's relatively poorer performance in aptitude tests, many of which require skills of spatial reasoning. We used functional magnetic imaging to examine the neural structure underlying shifts in women's performance of a spatial reasoning task induced by positive and negative stereotypes. Three groups of participants performed a task involving imagined rotations of the self. Prior to scanning, the positive stereotype group was exposed to a false but plausible stereotype of women's superior perspective-taking abilities; the negative stereotype group was exposed to the pervasive stereotype that men outperform women on spatial tasks; and the control group received neutral information. The significantly poorer performance we found in the negative stereotype group corresponded to increased activation in brain regions associated with increased emotional load. In contrast, the significantly improved performance we found in the positive stereotype group was associated with increased activation in visual processing areas and, to a lesser degree, complex working memory processes. These findings suggest that stereotype messages affect the brain selectively, with positive messages producing relatively more efficient neural strategies than negative messages.

Development of mental transformation abilities

“…Another factor is suggested by studies [82,83], showing that instruction-induced expectations Running head: DEVELOPMENT OF MENTAL TRANSFORMATION ABILITIES 15 about gender differences can affect performance. Neuroimaging results [84] indicate that negative stereotypes promote less efficient neural strategies and increase emotional load, whereas positive stereotypes are associated with heightened activation in visual processing areas and working memory processes. Surprisingly, such negative correlations between spatial anxiety and MR performance can be found in girls as young as 5 to 8 years [67].…”

The Neuroscience of Stigma and Stereotype Threat

“…This type of work is important, as observations of actual neural consequences of stigma are a step toward understanding the mechanism underlying commonly observed behavioral effects of stigma, for example, performance decrements or disengagement. Two examples of social neuroscience research on stereotype threat examine brain activation of women in normal and stereotype threat conditions (Krendl, Richeson, Kelley, & Heatherton, 2008;Wraga, Helt, Jacobs, & Sullivan, 2007).…”

Will Working Mothers’ Brains Explode? The Popular New Genre of Neurosexism

“…However, there is evidence that accounts of gender that emphasise biological factors leave us more inclined to agree with gender stereotypes, to selfstereotype ourselves, and for our performance to fall in line with those stereotypes (e.g., [2,7,8]). Moreover, other research from the social psychological literature has shown that presenting cognitive or emotional tasks in ways that make them seem diagnostic of gender tends to set up a self-fulfilling prophecy (e.g., [3,14,15,[21][22][23][24]). Research such as this underlines the point that, 'the psyche is … not a discrete entity packed in the brain.…”