Sharjah24 – AFP: Across the world, girls are more likely than boys to blame academic failure on a lack of talent, according to a large study on gender stereotypes published Wednesday.
Paradoxically, the idea that males are inherently more brilliant was most entrenched in countries that are more egalitarian.
Such stereotypes have been explored in the past, but the new work, published in the journal Science Advances, has the advantage of encompassing 500,000 students across the world, making it possible to compare between countries.
It used data from the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a study conducted every three years to learn more about the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students in math, reading, and sciences.
The 2018 survey included the sentence: "When I am failing, I am afraid that I might not have enough talent."
The result: in 71 of the 72 countries studied, even when performance was equal, girls were more inclined to attribute their failures to a lack of talent than boys, who were likelier to blame external factors. The sole exception was Saudi Arabia.
Contrary to what one may expect, the differences were most pronounced in wealthy nations.
Within wealthy OECD countries, 61 percent of girls said they agreed with the statement, compared to 47 percent of boys –- a difference of 14 percent.
In non-OECD countries, the gap was still present, but the difference was just eight percent.
The difference was also greater among higher-performing students compared to those of average performance.
For an optimal experience, please
