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According to a recent international study, girls attribute their failures more to a lack of talent in developed countries. For the co-author of the study and researcher Thomas Breda, this phenomenon is an element that allows the maintenance of the glass ceiling.
There would be, above the cradles of the boys, a good fairy who would grant them the genius at birth and who would avoid the bassinets of the girls for some mysterious reason? A major international study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances analyzes this stereotype according to which women are less brilliant than men. The results show how much this cliché is internalized by girls, who more than boys attribute their failures to a lack of talent. This work was carried out based on the results of the 2018 Pisa international survey, which evaluates education systems every three years. 500,000 15-year-old students were surveyed in 72 countries. They were asked to react to this statement “When I fail, I fear that it is because I do not have enough talent”, point of support of the researchers. Co-author of the study, Thomas Breda, researcher at the CNRS, highlights this stereotype – for the first time studied on a large scale – as an element contributing to maintaining the glass ceiling.
Faced with failure, how do the reactions of girls and boys differ?…