Effect of emotional intelligence on sensitivity to stereotype threat among girls learning to play football

Abstract

This study assesses sensitivity to stereotype threat among girls learning to play football. It fits precisely in the perspective of works on the reduction factors of this phenomenon. It proposes emotional intelligence as a factor that can reduce sensitivity to this threat; hence the hypothesis: among girls learning to play football, high emotional intelligence reduces sensitivity to stereotype threat more than low emotional intelligence. Specifically, participants’ exposure to an ingroup stereotype of incompetence was expected to impact them differently, depending on their level of emotional intelligence. This hypothesis was tested through an experiment carried out with 61 female pupils attending the Government Bilingual High School of Penka-Michel (Cameroon). That exeperiment was conducted in a natural setting, following the stereotype threat’s experimental paradigm. The results do not support the hypothesis of the study, although it can be observed that the average performance of participants with high emotional intelligence is higher than that of their counterparts with low emotional intelligence (f (1, 61) = 6.79; Ŋ2 = .98; p = .135˃.05; t = .63; p = .532˃.05; M high IE = 3566.67> M low IE = 3433.72). It is concluded that emotional intelligence does not significantly reduce sensitivity to stereotype threat.