We've had some recent discussions about girls and chess. This just came across my desk in my news reader for work:
http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2014/01/girls-underperform-when-they-play-chess.htmlInteresting and frustrating. I observed at my DS's recent chess tournament that the # of girls got smaller and smaller as the kids got older, with only one or two girls in the K-12 section. My own DD is much better at chess than she generally lets on, though there is a complex situation here with it being her brother's "thing." I was very pleased to hear that the school chess coach (who also gives lessons during school) is now trying to recruit my DD to the chess team. This is as it should be (though it's totally up to her if she wants to be on the team--right now she doesn't want to) and suggests that DD is finally playing to her ability in class rather than messing around and underplaying. I really read her the riot act about that when I found out she was doing it. Maybe I should have been a bit more relaxed, but as I told her, when she has ability but is faking that she doesn't, she is perpetuating the misconception that girls can't be good at chess.
From the article:
Rothgerber and Wolsiefer first surveyed 77 female school chess players and found they were familiar with the stereotype that men are better at chess than women (a stereotype reflected in the fact that there is only one woman, Judit Polgár, in the world's top 100 chess players; see pic).
Did the girls who are unfamiliar with this "stereotype" (what I would call a fact) do better against boys than those who were unfamiliar? In other words, does this study asserting that girls underperform because of stereotype threat have a control group? It appears not to, which would make it dubious.
Some of the early work on "stereotype threat" said it was triggered when people from group X were told that members of group X were worse than average at some activity (such as doing math) before engaging in that activity. I've been to a lot of chess tournaments, and sex differences in chess ability are not being discussed before the games begin. This is another reason to doubt the "stereotype threat" explanation for sex differences in chess.
