An evaluative message fosters mathematics performance in male students but decreases intrinsic motivation in female students

This study contrasted the effects of two task messages, evaluative or non-evaluative, on mathematics performance, affect, and intrinsic task motivation. One hundred-twenty secondary-school students aged 17–21 years were delivered one of the two messages, or assigned to a control condition, before completing a mathematics task, measures of message appraisals (challenge and threat), affect (pleasantness, arousal, dominance), and a behavioural...