Retraining attitudes and stereotypes to affect motivation and cognitive capacity under stereotype threat.
Open accessAbstract
In a series of experiments, a retraining paradigm was used to test the effects of attitudes and stereotypes on individuals' motivation and cognitive capacity in stereotype-threatening contexts. Women trained to have a more positive math attitude exhibited increased math motivation (Study 1). This effect was not observed for men but was magnified among women when negative stereotypes were either primed subtly (Study 2) or indirectly reinforced (Study 3). Although attitudes had no effect on working memory capacity, women retrained to associate their gender with being good at math exhibited increased working memory capacity (Studies 3 and 4), which in turn mediated increased math performance (Study 4) in a stereotype-threatening context. Results suggest that although positive attitudes can motivate stigmatized individuals to engage with threatening domains, stereotypes need to be retrained to give them the cognitive capacity critical for success. Implications for interventions to reduce stereotype threat are discussed.
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Forbes and Schmader (2010) found that training a more positive attitude towards the testing domain increased motivation but not performance.
“Finally, Forbes and Schmader (2010) found that training a more positive attitude towards the testing domain increased motivation but not performance.”
From Factors Related to Mean Score Group Differences on Cognitive Ability Tests: A Systematic Review (2025) · cites this paper as Forbes and Schmader (2010)
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- Authors
- Forbes, C. E., & Schmader, T.
- Affiliations
- University of Arizona (US)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2010
- Volume
- 99
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 740-754
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- PMC
- PMC2976624
- OpenAlex
- W2170170189
- Cited by
- 132
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 25.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute Dissertation Research
- National Institute of Mental Health (1R01MH071749)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Career Development and Diversity
- Keywords
- stereotype threat, student attitudes toward mathematics, math motivation, gender stereotypes, working memory capacity, mathematics achievement, women in mathematics, stereotype priming, stigmatized groups
- MeSH terms
- Attitude, Cognition, Female, Humans, Male, Mathematics, Memory, Short-Term, Models, Psychological, Motivation, Psychological Tests, Sex Factors, Stereotyping
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