The Ill Effects of Math Anxiety

Researchers have found that math anxiety leads to decreased comprehension of statistics in a message about genetically modified foods, while readers more confident in their math skills grasp the material better. 

Each of the 323 university students recruited by Roxanne Parrott (Pennsylvania State University) and Kami J. Silk (Michigan State University) read a message that presented statistics about genetically modified foods in one of three ways: in text with percentages, as a bar graph, and a combination of the two. The researchers measured participants' math skills, confidence, and anxiety prior to reading and their anxiety and reading comprehension afterward.

"This is the first study that we know of to take math anxiety to a health and risk setting," said Parrott.

Read Penn State's coverage.