White coat hypertension is a phenomenon in which patients exhibit elevated blood pressure in a clinical setting (doctor's office, hospital, etc.) but not in other settings, apparently due to anxiety caused by being in the clinical setting.

Stereotype threat is the experience of anxiety or concern in a situation where a person has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group. Since most people have at least one social identity which is negatively stereotyped, most people are vulnerable to stereotype threat if they encounter a situation in which the stereotype is relevant. Although stereotype threat is usually discussed in the context of the academic performance of stereotyped racial minorities and women, stereotype threat can negatively affect the performance of European Americans in athletic situations as well as men who are being tested on their social sensitivity.

Math anxiety is anxiety about one's ability to do mathematics, independent of skill. Highly anxious math students will avoid situations in which they have to perform mathematical calculations. Math avoidance results in less competency, exposure and math practice, leaving students more anxious and mathematically unprepared to achieve. In college and university, anxious math students take fewer math courses and tend to feel negative towards math.

Set and setting describes the context for psychoactive and particularly psychedelic drug experiences: one's mindset and the setting in which the user has the experience. 'Set' is the mental state a person brings to the experience, like thoughts, mood and expectations. 'Setting' is the physical and social environment. Social support networks have shown to be particularly important in the outcome of the psychedelic experience. Stress, fear, or a disagreeable environment, may result in an unpleasant experience (bad trip). Conversely, a relaxed, curious person in a warm, comfortable and safe place is more likely to have a pleasant experience.

The Wason selection task, one of the most famous tasks in the psychology of reasoning, is a logic puzzle which most people get wrong when presented as a test of abstract reasoning; but produce the "correct" response when presented in a context of social relations. A Wason task proves to be easier if the rule to be tested is one of social exchange and the subject is asked to police the rule, but is more difficult otherwise.

(The above paragraphs summarize the Wikipedia articles linked; see those articles for sources. Below is speculation on my part.)

IQ tests, and other standardized tests, are usually given in settings associated with schooling or psychological evaluation. People who perform very well on them (gifted students) often report that they think of tests as being like puzzles or games. Many gifted students enjoy puzzles and solve them recreationally; and so may approach standardized tests with a more relaxed and less anxious mindset. Struggling students, who are accustomed to schooling being a source of anxiety, may face tests with a mindset that further diminishes their performance — and in a setting that they already associate with failure.

In other words, the setting of test-taking, and the mindset with which gifted and struggling students approach it, may amplify their underlying differences of reasoning ability. In effect, the test does not measure reasoning ability; it measures some combination of reasoning ability and comfort in the academic setting. These variables are correlated, but failing to notice the latter may lead us to believe there are wider differences in the former than there actually are.

Some people I've discussed the Wason task with, who have been from gifted-student and mathematical backgrounds, have reported that they solve the social-reasoning form of it by translating it to an abstract-reasoning form. This leaves me wondering if the task is easier if presented in a form that the individual is more comfortable with; and that these folks expect more success in abstract reasoning than others do: in other words, that the discrepancy has very much to do with mindset, and serves as an amplifier for people's comfort or discomfort with abstract reasoning more than their ability to reason.