"Oh so you're one of the 'Fa-la-la' boys!": Salience of gender stereotype threat and boys in secondary school choirs.

Abstract

Boys in choirs often seem to be reluctant to perform in front of their peers. On the other hand, girls who sing in choirs have quite a contrasting experience. This ongoing study explored whether gender stereotype threat contributes to boy choristers’ performance decrement, and whether the experience of stereotype threat is affected by the level of salience. Results from measurements of observed performance quality were analysed in order to investigate differences between performances in two different conditions (where stereotype threat was made salient, and where it was not made salient) for both boys and girls. A pattern of performance decrement for the boy choristers was found to be consistent with that expected. Self-report questionnaires were also completed by each chorister, after each performance, however, there were no significant differences noted between either gender, or condition. Two choirs proved to be notable exceptions. Here, stereotype threat was made overtly salient by the audience in the threat condition, and the responses from the self-report questionnaires were as expected for both gender and condition. The findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to the study of how stereotype threat is experienced, both theoretically and practically.