Fear of math can outweigh promise of higher rewards

Math anxiety is far from uncommon, but too often, those who dread the subject simply avoid it. Research from the University of Chicago offers new evidence for the link between math anxiety and avoidance—as well as possible paths toward breaking that connection. UChicago psychologists found that people who are math-anxious often steer away from more difficult math problems, even when solving them leads to much larger monetary rewards. “You can be motivated to do well in something, but still make suboptimal decisions in subtle ways,” said UChicago doctoral student Jalisha Jenifer, who led the study with postdoctoral scholar Kyoung Whan Choe.
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