Gender Role Attitudes and Stereotype Threat in Same­ sex and Mixed-sex Competitive Conditions among University Students

Based on the criticism on Horner's (1969) theory. the study aimed to explain the phenomenon of performance inhibition of university students under stereotyped threat conditions when the factor of fear of success (FOS) is controlled. The assumption that FOS is the fear of v1olating gender stereotype; it was hypothesized that individuals with traditional gender role attitude (GRA) would inhibit their performance on tasks perceived as negatively gender stereotyped. A gender neutral Scrambled Word Task was developed to measure performance. Individuals with traditional ORA significantly underperformed than those with egalitarian GRA on negatively gender stereotyped task. The effect of competitiveness was significant for individuals with traditional GRA on negatively gender stereotyped tasks. Same­ sex and mixed-sex group composition had nonsignificant effect.