To Steele, it seemed as if female test takers had been undermined simply by the knowledge that a damaging prejudice existed, even if they also knew it wasn’t true. As he later wrote, “on the basis of negative stereotypes of women’s math ability, simply taking a difficult math test puts a woman at risk of stigmatization, of being seen as limited at math because she is a woman.” The existence of this stereotype generated just enough anxiety and distraction to slow them down, which translated into lower scores.
