‘Women are Bad at Math, but I’m Not, am I?’ Fragile Mathematical Self-concept Predicts Vulnerability to a Stereotype Threat Effect on Mathematical Performance FRIEDERIKE X. R. GERSTENBERG 1 * , ROLAND IMHOFF 2 and MANFRED SCHMITT 1 1 University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany 2 University of Bonn, Germany Abstract: The present research reports the results of three studies showing that individuals with a fragile self-concept in the domain of performance are particularly vulnerable to stereotype threat effects. Specifically, women who explic- itly described themselves as rather mathematical but whose implicit self-concepts contradicted these claims were vulnerable to stereotype threat effects on mathematical performance. This effect was robust across three studies, independent of the subtleness or content of the stereotype threat manipulation. Additionally, it was shown that the effect was mediated by anxious worrying (Study 3). Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key words: implicit self-concept; explicit self-concept; Implicit Association Test; stereotype threat; mathematical performance A growing body of research has shown that individuals who are members of stereotyped groups suffer from a performance deficit when a negative stereotype about their in-group becomes salient (e.g., Croizet & Claire, 1998; Steele & Aronson, 1995). According to the Stereotype Threat (ST) model (Steele & Aronson, 1995), individuals who perform a difficult task in an area in which their group is considered weak feel at risk of confirming the stereotype, and this psychological pressure leads them to underperform. Although there is little doubt about the pervasiveness of the ST phenomenon, not all individuals are equally susceptible to its debilitating effects (e.g., Pinel, 2002; Schmader, 2002; Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002). In the present paper, it is argued and shown that ST may particularly affect those with a fragile self-concept in the domain of performance (i.e., an explicit identification that is not backed up by a consistent automatic association). Stereotype threat has been identified as a pervasive phenomenon. Although initially observed among African Americans taking an intellectual test and thus facing the threat of confirming a negative societal stereotype about their group’s intellectual abilities (Steele & Aronson, 1995), other social groups have shown similar declines in performance when negative stereotypes about their groups’ abilities were made salient. These groups have included people from low socio- economic backgrounds (Croizet & Claire, 1998), women (Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999), elementary and middle- school girls (Ambady, Shih, Kim, & Pittinsky, 2001) and even men, an arguably more socially dominant group (Aronson, Lustina, Good, Keough, Steele, & Brown, 1999). Beyond intellectual performance, ST can also impair performance in intergroup contexts (Goff, Steele, & Davies, 2008) as well as in athletic contexts (Chalabaev, Stone, Sarrazin, & Croizet, 2008; Stone, 2002; Stone, Lynch, Sjomeling, & Darley, 1999). The processes that drive ST include anxiety (Blascovich, Spencer, Quinn, & Steele, 2001; Osborne, 2001; Spencer et al., 1999), intrusive thoughts (e.g., Steele & Aronson, 1995; Study 3), a shift toward caution (Croizet & Claire, 1998; Steele & Aronson, 1995), performance expec- tancy (Cadinu, Maass, Frigerio, Impagliazzo & Latinotti, 2003; Stangor, Carr, & Kiang, 1998) and disengagement and effort withdrawal (Cadinu, Maass, Lombardo, & Frigerio, 2006; Spencer et al., 1999). Building on the well-established findings that there exists an effect of ST, more recent research has tried to identify individual vulnerabilities (for a review, see Maass & Cadinu, 2003). Vulnerability to ST has been shown to depend on the degree to which individuals identify with the stereotyped group (Schmader, 2002) or the performance domain (e.g., Marx & Roman, 2002), the individuals’ consciousness of the stigma (Pinel, 2002), locus of control (Cadinu et al., 2003, 2006) and the importance that individuals attribute to the relevant performance domain (Steele et al., 2002). Concerning individuals’ automatic associations, Kiefer and Sekaquaptewa (2007a, 2007b) provided evidence that a strong automatic association of math with man moderated the effects of ST on women’s mathematical performance. Thus, women who held implicit stereotypes about women as less mathematically talented were more affected by an ST manipulation than women who did not (the authors found no effect for self–woman or self–math associations). The present research builds on this pioneering work regarding the role of implicit processes in ST by adding a consistency perspective based on earlier findings. Specifically, it is *Correspondence to: Friederike Gerstenberg (neé Dislich), Department of Psychology, Technische Universität München, Lothstr. 17, 80335 München, Germany. E-mail: dislich@me.com European Journal of Personality, Eur. J. Pers. (2012) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/per.1836 Received 15 March 2011 Revised 17 November 2011, Accepted 23 November 2011 Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.