Consuming Images: How Television Commercials that Elicit Stereotype Threat Can Restrain Women Academically and Professionally

TLDR

Women in quantitative fields face stereotype threat that portrays them as less capable in math, undermining performance and career aspirations. The authors used gender‑stereotypic television commercials in three studies to activate the female stereotype in both men and women. The commercials caused women to underperform on math when the stereotype was self‑relevant, to avoid math items in favor of verbal ones, and to shift interest from quantitative to verbal domains.

Abstract

Women in quantitative fields risk being personally reduced to negative stereotypes that allege a sex-based math inability. This situational predicament, termed stereotype threat, can undermine women’s performance and aspirations in all quantitative domains. Gender-stereotypic television commercials were employed in three studies to elicit the female stereotype among both men and women. Study 1 revealed that only women for whom the activated stereotype was self-relevant underperformed on a subsequent math test. Exposure to the stereotypic commercials led women taking an aptitude test in Study 2 to avoid math items in favor of verbal items. In Study 3, women who viewed the stereotypic commercials indicated less interest in educational/vocational options in which they were susceptible to stereotype threat (i.e., quantitative domains) and more interest in fields in which they were immune to stereotype threat (i.e., verbal domains).