Neuro-myths matter because they affect people's thoughts and behavior: they can change how we see ourselves and how we see each other. Let us take the example of gender again. At age 8 to 9, there is no difference in how well girls and boys do at math, yet girls (and their parents) rate their math ability to be lower than boys. This suggests that what people believe (in this case, that girls are not as strong at math) may have a real impact on how children see themselves, which may in turn affect their actual performance. In one study, when a group of college students was given a math test, men did better than women when they were told that the test usually shows gender differences, but when they were told it was a gender-fair test, women did just as well as men. This is important because, by the end of education, differences that were once small become massive: 94% of maths professors in the UK are men . This is a good example of why we should be careful about neuro-myths—what you believe about your brain and the brains of those around you may just come true.

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MPAA: PG-13
Go to source: https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00049