Daily Evaluation Threat and Instability in the Ability Self-Concept Among Stereotype-Aware Women

Abstract

A clear and stable notion of one's abilities in a field is an important predictor of interest and motivation. The present study examines whether the development of this clear and stable ability self-concept is undermined for people facing negative stereotyping because of exposure to daily evaluation threats. As such, the present study examines a novel explanation for the leaky pipeline phenomenon that members of negatively stereotyped groups disproportionally opt out of fields. A daily diary study among 205 female psychology students (N = 1390 data points) showed that awareness of ingroup-stereotyping related to more daily fear that others negatively evaluate their statistical abilities. This daily evaluation threat related negatively, within and across days, to fluctuations in clarity and certainty of the ability self-concept—indicating that the ability self-concept is more unstable for people experiencing more daily evaluation-threat. Lower clarity and certainty of the ability self-concept was, in turn, related to lower statistics interest and motivation, speaking to the importance of a clear and stable ability self-concept for goal pursuit.