1. University of Washington
Gender Differences in Implicit Attitudes toward Mathematics and Science
Brian A. Nosek
Mahzarin R. Banaji
Yale University
Anthony G. Greenwald
University of Washington
Read Title
Collaborators
Other people to thank
Research Assistants -- Cindy Wang and Andrea Gaynor
Brief introduction to research
Despite equal numbers of males and females in the workplace, there are disproportionately fewer females in science and math related fields. Our research investigates factors like attitudes and beliefs about mathematics that are presumed to be related to these gender differences. However, unlike previous research in this area, our investigations examine attitudes and beliefs about mathematics at an implicit, or unconscious, level.
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2. Gender differences in participation in mathematics
As level of education increases female participation in math and science declines
startling gender differences in participation --NSF report, 1996
uncover bottom half-- tell them what they are seeing
in high school participation rates are even (except for physics)
in college although females are 54% of degree recipients, they are only 45% of science graduates
the differences for doctoral students are even larger with only 30% of degrees going to females
by the time females enter the workforce they are only 22% of the total number of peoples employed in the sciences andengineering
(representation looks a little better when considering only graduates since 1990 of which 32% of them were female)
the sciences as described here include all sciences including those that are not math-intensive such as biological sciences,psychology, and other social sciences
participation is not the only arena in which we see a trend of growing differences between males and females. We see a similar trend in performance.
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3. Differential gender participation in the sciences

4. Gender differences in performanceH y d e e t a l . , 1 9 9 e l e m e n t a r y s c h o o l
-.06 h i g h s c h o o l . 2 9
a popular meta-analysis by Hyde, Fennema, and Lamon reviewed 100 studies on math performance differences between males and females
no differences in elementary school, but differences favoring males emerged in high school and college.
Researchers including Jacqueline Eccles, Herbert Marsh, and Claude Steele have offered a variety of models and explanations for the dramatic gender differences in participation and performance in mathematics. These explanations include factors like: attitude differences, the effects of stereotypes on performance, self-identification with mathematics, influence of parents and peers, and gender identity. For this research we took particular interest in measuring two of these factors at an implicit level.
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Males account for as much as 96%
of perfect or near perfect SAT
math scores

5. Explicit vs. Implicit unintentional intentional automatic controlled
Explicit Attitudes
Implicit Attitudes
unintentional
automatic
indirect measurement
no self-report needed
not subject to presentational biases
intentional
controlled
direct measurement
self-report
subject to presentational biases
The following are some ways that we can distinguish implicit associations from explicit associations. It is important to clarify that implicit and explicit attitudes are not the same thing -- and yet, neither is more real than the other. They are simply different measures of an individual’s evaluation of social or non-social objects. Explicit is intentional and controlled while implicit is automatic and unintentional. Explicit is direct while implicit is indirect.
Previous research has found little evidence of an association between implicit and explicit attitudes and beliefs. Greenwald and colleagues posit that social desirability factors may mediate the presence of relationships between implicit and explicit measures. Since most of the previous research using implicit measures has focused on attitudes with large s.d. components, like racial attitudes, no relationship was observed or expected. Attitudes toward mathematics are not seen as having as significant a component of s.d. as racial attitudes. Thus, we have an opportunity to examine more closely whether a relationship between implicit and explicit attitudes can exist.
Our measurement of implicit attitudes and beliefs utilizes a new method of measurement developed by Tony Greenwald and colleagues called the Implicit Association Test, or IAT. --next slide--

6. Relative Attitude Index =
(Math/unpleasant) - (Math/pleasant)
RAI = (math+unpleasant) - (math+pleasant)
= 750ms - 850ms
= -100ms

7. Attitudes Toward Mathematics
Do females hold more negative attitudes toward mathematics than males at an implicit level?
Go over:
IAT - headings and stimuli
why we did both
what was expected
what a particular response would mean
reveal result
describe
interaction - significant (p < .0001) d =1.03
females - sig (p < .0001) d = 2.03
males - sig (p < .0001) d = .79
Attitudes Toward Mathematics
d = 1.03

8. Do females hold more negative attitudes toward science than males at an implicit level?

9. Relationship between implicit and explicit attitudes
Correlation between implicit and explicit attitudes toward mathematics: ***
Our third goal was to examine whether relationships between implicit and explicit measures of attitudes toward mathematics could be observed.
Why do we see a relationship here?
- common explanation: other studies look at domains w/ high s.d.
- our data consistent with this explanation
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Other possible explanations (only if asked a question):
- knowledge of att. relative to others
- accessibility and availability
- methodological - tapping same construct - metrics

10. Implicit attitudes, explicit attitudes and performance

11. Attitudes toward mathematics by major and gender
In my remaining time I would like to present some exploratory analyses that are exciting demonstrations of the potential for implicit measures to contribute to the investigation of gender differences in orientations toward mathematics.
intro major exploration
We would expect that individuals who select mathematically oriented majors would show higher implicit liking for mathematics.
- groups - who is science and who is non-science, early in college career - not committed to the major
- what do scores mean?
- what do we expect to see?
reveal data
- main effect for major group
- middle two bars

12. Comparing Implicit and Explicit Attitudes by Gender and Major
In experiment 2 we found a relationship between implicit and explicit attitudes toward mathematics. The strong correlation indicated that positive explicit attitudes toward mathematics were associated with more positive implicit attitudes toward math. So, in general, we would expect to see that explicit attitudes were a reflection of implicit attitudes. However, the finding that science major females in fact had implicit attitudes toward math as negative as nonscience major males led us to wonder about the relationship between science females’ self-reported attitudes and their implicit attitudes. That is, are the self-reported attitudes toward math of science-oriented females consistent with their implicit attitudes?
To test this, we standardized the scores of implicit and explicit attitudes toward math. That way the implicit/explicit attitudes could be compared. A group has similar I and E relative to the sample if their std. scores are similar. A difference in the standard scores could be said to reflect a dissociation between I and E attitudes.
Positive values on this table indicated more + attitude toward math compared to the rest of the sample.
- reveal data -
summarize
though speculative, this dissociation may be important in females perseverance in mathematical domains. Females have an addt’l burden of overcoming implicit associations that are discouraging their pursuit of their chosen field. This is a question for future research.

13. Primary findings
Gender differences in attitudes toward math can be revealed measuring outside of conscious control
Implicit and explicit attitudes about math were related
Implicit and explicit measures were related to performance
Female science majors’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward math were dissociated
some general themes of the research I reviewed today
we showed that fem. hold more negative implicit attitudes toward math and are less identified with mathematics than males
despite a wealth of evidence that I/E are not associated, our research demonstrates a strong and reliable association.
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