ANXIETY OVER STEREOTYPES 'IMPEDES SUCCESS'

Psychologists have long known that stereotypes about intelligence can be
self-fulfilling, leading women, minorities and even non-Asian math
students to perform poorly if others expect it of them.

Exactly why that happens is a mystery that researcher Sian Beilock of the
University of Chicago, may have helped to crack in a new study that
suggests worrying about a stereotype leaves less brainpower for the task
at hand.

Dr Beilock and two colleagues gave female students a set of mathematical
problems after telling them that men consistently do better than women at
standardised maths tests. As expected, those women did worse than others
who did not get the reminder about maths stereotypes.

The women also did worse at a non-mathematical chore requiring them to
remember which letters were shown on a screen.

The reason may be that the stereotype did not simply scale down the
students' expectations for themselves.

Dr Beilock believes worrying about the stereotype actually took up
processing resources in the brain that otherwise would be used to solve
the math problems and other tasks that rely on so-called "working memory".

"Even if you're really good at a subject, when someone arouses the
stereotype, you'll do more poorly than you're able. You spend half of your
consciousness worrying about it," said Dr Mark Ashcraft, chairman of
psychology at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Knowing how stereotypes can affect test results
...

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hmmm..so wat ur views..haha..i dun really care abt it lol..no big deal..but becoz ppl become too worry n so cause them to do bad is nt good.