Stereotype Threat

Stereotype threat is the risk of behaving in line with a stereotype about one’s group when the group is brought to one’s attention. Being aware of the stereotype creates an anxiety that can impair performance, thus resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy in which the stereotype is filled.

This phenomena came to light in 1995 when Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson found that having students check off their race on an SAT test led to African American students performing worse than Caucasian students, while African American students performed equivalently when race was not checked off. This perhaps unconsciously triggered the inaccurate stereotype that African Americans are less intelligent, which in turn led to students performing in such a way that the stereotype was enforced.

Subsequent research found that stereotype threat doesn’t just occur in standardized testing. It occurs in athletics, academic settings, and many other situations. The mere presence of other people can induce it. For instance, research by Inzlicht et al found that women who took a mathematics exam along with two other women got 70% of the answers right, while women who took a mathematics exam in the presence of two men got an average score of 55%. The salience of gender reminded the women that women are stereotyped as being less intelligent than men in the latter case.

Frightening research published within the past few weeks expresses a similar issue in which people are likely to treat others in line with the stereotypes of their group. A study by Milkman et al found that professors are likelier to respond to inquiries from students who are white males than to any other group. Even female professors were likelier to respond to males. Some of the professors may have consciously avoided responding to non-white-male students, but it is likelier that most were not aware that they were doing this. The stereotype that white males are the most intelligent group likely led to an unconscious preference for responding to members of this group. This in turn can lead to greater self-consciousness in the groups who did not receive a response, further inducing the self-fulfulling prophecy of stereotype threats.

The consequences of stereotype threat include decreased performance, internal attributions for failure, distancing oneself from the stereotyped group, and altered career goals. These are serious problems. So how can we address them? I believe the best way to combat stereotype threat is to first educate people about it. If people are aware that they are being primed by factors that they may not be aware of, they may be able to avoid responding to the stereotype threat. It is also important to be aware of triggers and eliminate them. For example, SAT test designers should not have students check off their race. It would be impossible to remove all triggers, however, as they are often unconscious or difficult to eradicate, as in the example where women took a math exam in the presence of all men. The more triggers that are removed, though, the better.