Increasing the willingness to engage in math: the effect of curiosity on math anxious females

In many countries females’ avoidance of STEM studies and careers represents a major policy issue that governments wish to solve in favour of a more gender equal society. This study tries to address the issue by testing whether math anxious females would be more willing to engage in math when certain types of curiosity are elicited. The results of an experiment conducted on 157 female respondents indicate that enhancing their curiosity by providing them with additional information to solve a math problem, significantly increases their willingness to engage in math compared to a situation where no hint is provided. Unfortunately, results also show that the present experimental design has no effect on females with relatively high levels of math anxiety. Further research opportunities are discussed to find ways in which females could be supported in overcoming their fear of math and engage more in the subject.