The perils of double consciousness: The role of thought suppression in stereotype threat

0022-1031/$ see front matter 2009 Published by doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2008.07.016 q This research was supported by an NSERC Docto Doctoral Fellowship to the first author, and a SSHRC thank Dan Wegner and Vincent Yzerbyt for their fee presented in the manuscript, and Danu Stinson an comments on an earlier draft. We also thank Cory M Chatland, Richard Johnson, Juliana Parker, Rebecc Pochert for their help with the data collection. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (C. Logel). The goal of the present research is to demonstrate, and then alleviate, the role of thought suppression in depressing women’s math performance under stereotype threat. We hypothesize that when taking a math test, women (but not men) attempt to suppress thoughts of the math-related gender stereotype. Suppression leads to underperformance when it uses up cognitive resources. In Study 1, women underperform on a math test and show postsuppressional rebound of the stereotype when cognitive resources are reduced. In Study 2, women suppress the stereotype after a math test begins, but show rebound when the test is complete. In Study 3, making the stereotype irrelevant to the test improves performance and reduces postsuppressional rebound. In Studies 4 and 5, we test a strategy women can use to make suppression easier, and show that it restores math performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. 2009 Published by Elsevier Inc.