Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Stereotype Threat

Stereotype threat is said to occur when an individual's awareness of negative stereotypes about his or her group becomes an apprehension about confirming such stereotypes based on his or her appearance, behavior, mannerisms, and so on. According to the stereotype threat formulation, the activation of a negative stereotype—via experimental instructions or other cues in the environment—can elicit a disruptive state that can undermine performance and aspirations in stereotype-relevant domains. This entry provides an overview of the phenomenon, including the groups susceptible to stereotype threat, its psychological mediators and moderators, and interventions that have been shown empirically to help individuals resist its more pernicious effects.

Susceptibility to Stereotype Threat

In their seminal article published in 1995, Steele and Aronson reported findings that when Black students were confronted with a verbal test (the Graduate Record Exam) introduced to them as a measure of their verbal abilities, they performed substantially worse on the test than a group of equally proficient students who took the same test but were assured it was not being used to diagnose their abilities.

In the wake of the Steele and Aronson research, more than 300 studies were published on stereotype threat, showing the wide range of groups susceptible to its effects. For instance, females were found to underperform on a math or a science test in situations where gender identity was made salient, thus reminding women of the stereotype about their supposed inferiority to men in these stereotypically masculine domains. Similarly, the stereotype that poor people are less intelligent has been found in some studies to lead students from low socioeconomic backgrounds to underperform when their wealth level is made salient. Stereotype threat impairs memory in the elderly in situations eliciting the stereotype that the elderly have less memory. Thus, the deleterious effects of stereotype threat can be experienced by a number of targeted groups at risk of feeling pressure to disconfirm a stereotype.

The Mediators of Stereotype Threat

A number of variables have been studied to understand the underlying processes that connect stereotype threat and underperformance. Empirical work suggests that anxiety and executive functions mediate the effects of stereotype threat on performance.

Initially, Steele and Aronson, who formulated the concept of stereotype threat, hypothesized that trying to disprove a negative stereotype under a stereotype threat condition would increase anxiety, which would in turn impair performance. Although this hypothesis was not always confirmed when researchers probed anxiety with retrospective self-reports, studies employing physiological markers (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate) or well-timed self-report measures of anxiety strongly suggests the role of arousal, thus linking the experience of stereotype threat with a state known to reliably interfere with intellectual performance. Arousal impairs performance in large part by reducing working memory and self-regulation capacity, both of which have been found to be directly taxed when research participants are stereotype-threatened in laboratory studies.

The Moderators of Stereotype Threat

Research also focuses on individual difference (personality) factors associated with the risk of experiencing the negative effects of stereotype threat. Group identification, domain identification, and stereotype endorsement were identified as moderators of stereotype threat effects.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution