Researchers conducted a recent study to determine what, exactly, makes students identify as "math people." Researchers surveyed 9,000 college students over more than 130 colleges and universities, all taking a calculus course during the same semester. From the results, the researchers determined what separated students who identified as good at math, from those students who didn’t identify as being good at math.
Interestingly, students who identified as “math people” cited being interested in math, and perhaps more importantly, being recognized as being good at math by the people in their lives.
This means if family, friends, and educators acknowledged the student as a “math person,” then the student was much more likely to identify as such -- the actual math ability didn’t factor as strongly into their math identity!