Friday, August 15, 2008

I just read this in the August edition of Allure.

Women can perform well in math – until they are reminded of the stereotype that men are better at it. At Dartmouth College, researchers led by psychologist Anne C. Krendl studied 28 college women who strongly agreed that it was important to them to be good at math. All had their brains scanned while they completed a variety of tasks, including two sets of difficult math problems. Before the second test, the investigators noted to some of the women that “research has shown gender differences in math ability and performance.” The subjects who had been reminded of this performed significantly worse the second time, whereas the others did significantly better. Also, the unprompted group showed activity in parts of the brain that are associated with math learning, but those reminded of the stereotype experienced activation of a brain area that processes negative social information, essentially distracting them from their task. Simply being aware of this effect can help women overcome it, Krendl says.

So, we really are what we think.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree totally with your comment! The power of positive thinking is amazing. I adore your products, which are top quality and long lasting, beautiful shades for most skin and hair types. As my hair is turning more and more silver, I've had to lighten my make up. Would like to see more "charcoal" and complimentary colors for us "silver foxes". Also PLEASE bring back the lip gloss palette! Mine is almost gone and will be desolate when it is! Keep up your good worksand your blog is great, love your gardens!
Jan in Maine

Jane Iredale representative said...

Dear Jan,

Thank you for the feedback. I wanted to let you know that the lip gloss palette was temporarily discontinued for the summer months but is available once again in our warehouse.

Best,

Jane