Gifted and Maladjusted? Implicit Attitudes and Automatic Associations Related to Gifted Children

The disharmony hypothesis (DH) states that high intelligence comes at a cost to the gifted, resulting in adjustment problems. We investigated whether there is a gifted stereotype that falls in line with the DH and affects attitudes toward gifted students. Preservice teachers ( N = 182) worked on single-target association tests and affective priming tasks. High intelligence was more strongly associated with gifted than with average-ability students. Adjustment problems were more strongly associated with gifted than with average-ability students for males only. Attitudes toward gifted students were neutral when no component of the DH was activated but were negative toward gifted males when adjustment difficulties were activated. Implicit associations and attitudes were in line with the DH—but only for male students.