Science Scene: Internalized gender roles affect STEM performance, attraction

[excerpt] When Cady Heron failed calculus in order to impress her crush, Aaron Samuels, in the film “Mean Girls,” she showed how detrimental internalized gender roles can be.

Men often dislike when women outsmart them in traditionally male-dominated tasks, such as math or other analytical activities, and women may alter their performances in order to comply with expectations according to some studies. UT associate professor Paul Eastwick and his colleagues conducted a study in which they polled undergraduate men about whether they would be interested in dating women who had scored higher than them on tests.

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