When Do Stereotype Threat Interventions Influence Leadership Outcomes? Evidence From Two Randomized Experiments

Abstract

Despite progress toward gender equality, women remain underrepresented in leadership roles, partly due to psychological barriers such as stereotype threat. This research examines whether stereotype threat interventions—a resilience‐based values affirmation, and a belief‐based role model intervention—improve women's leadership‐related outcomes, and whether their effectiveness depends on prior leadership experience and gender identification. In Study 1 (women university students), values affirmation improved leadership task performance relative to a control condition, but only among individuals with prior leadership experience; the role model intervention showed no significant effects. In Study 2 (working adults, including both men and women), both interventions increased leadership self‐efficacy relative to control, but neither reliably improved leadership aspirations or reduced reluctance to lead, and neither operated through reductions in stereotype threat itself. Gender identification predicted leadership outcomes directly but did not consistently moderate intervention effectiveness. Together, these findings suggest that stereotype threat interventions can produce outcome‐specific benefits for women, yet their effects are not straightforward, underscoring the need for organizations to pair such interventions with a clearer understanding of when, and for whom, they are likely to be effective.