The Effect of Stereotype Threat on the Solving of Quantitative GRE Problems: A Mere Effort Interpretation

Pers Soc Psychol Bull 35(10):1301-1314 (2009) PMID 19407004

The mere effort account argues that stereotype threat motivates participants to want to perform well, which potentiates prepotent responses. If the prepotent response is correct, performance is facilitated. If incorrect and participants do not know, or lack the knowledge or time required for correction, performance is debilitated. The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) quantitative test is made up of two problem types: (a) solve problems, which require the solution of an equation, and (b) comparison problems, which require the use of logic and estimation. Previous research shows that the prepotent tendency is to attempt to solve the equations. Consistent with mere effort predictions, Experiment 1 demonstrates that threatened participants perform better than controls on solve problems (prepotent response correct) but worse than controls on comparison problems (prepotent response incorrect). Experiment 2 shows that a simple instruction as to the correct solution approach eliminates the performance deficit on comparison problems.