Stereotype Threat: Unwillingly Giving into the Label

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Stereotype threat has penetrated the society on different levels but its glaring evidence can be seen in social and academic circles where ethnic minorities and women are concerned. What is it? Simply put, the negative stereotypes of a group that is rampant in the society affect a  member of that group so much so that they perform exactly like those stereotypes. This means that the member ultimately absorbs the negative stereotype as a self-characteristic. It stems from being subjected to bias and prejudice for a major part of life about one’s social group. 

This phenomenon is a true example of cruel irony because the only reason that this takes place is when the individual becomes anxious about performing negatively (as the stereotype outlines) and ends up conforming to that exact stereotype. 

Racial Stereotypes & Academic Performance

The term stereotype threat came into light when it was used by Steele and Aronson (1995) during their experiments to see whether racial stereotypes affected the academic performance of African-American students. Once the students were made aware of the presence of the racial stereotypes, the students performed poorly academically as they felt threatened. Claude Steele, dean of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University commented,

“blacks performed a full standard deviation worse than white students, which is the exact size of the IQ difference between blacks and whites in the general population,”

The students that were oblivious of the stereotypes performed equally or even better than other students of other races. They were told to just have fun as they solved a simple puzzle and according to Steele, “under that instruction, black students performed the same as white students on that test”.

Gender Stereotype Threat

Stereotype threat is like a malignant tumor that spreads and seeps into many degrees of the society; gender stereotype is the attacking force that staggers and impedes the progress of women in all walkways of life. 

“Women are not good at math” and “women play chess pretty poorly”, these statements or similar ones are thrown around in the society all the time. Some variations of such statements are common and they all boil down to the stereotype that women lack logic and analytical skills hence they fail at tasks that require these skills. The idea has been so perpetuated in all communities across the globe that even women believe that. But is it true?

Experiments were conducted where both the genders were given a sort of a math test but the women were aware of the gender stereotype. The result was that women did worse on the test than men. The second part of the experiment was to test whether the poor results were because of the stereotype threat or not. The female participants were given the instructions,

“you may have heard that women are not as good at math, … but that’s not true for this test, this is a test where women always do as well as men …,”.

The difference in the results went away and women did just as well as their male counterparts. 

A similar study was conducted where the researchers wished to explore the possibility of the presence of stereotype threat amongst female chess players. They observed that since the female players felt that they had shortcomings as compared to their male opponents, they underperformed greatly. 

How Does It Work?

The threat arises when the individual is aware of the stereotype that is associated with their social group. This proves that the threat is only negatively effective because the person has internalized the fear of it. The phenomenon is beautifully explained by Steele in his book called Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do where he wrote, “

The problem is that the pressure to disprove a stereotype changes what you are about in a situation. It gives you an additional task. In addition to learning new skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking in a schooling situation, or in addition to trying to perform well in a workplace like the women in the high-tech firms, you are also trying to slay a ghost in the room, the negative stereotype and its allegation about you and your group. You are multitasking, and because the stakes involved are high–survival and success versus failure in an area that is important to you–this multitasking is stressful and distracting. ”

Chronic Stereotype Threat

Chronic stereotype threat is real and can be chronic for the affected groups. As Steele mused,

“…And when you realize that this stressful experience is probably a chronic feature of the setting for you, it can be difficult for you to stay in the setting, to sustain your motivation to succeed there. Disproving a stereotype is a Sisyphean task; something you have to do over and over again as long as your are in the domain where the stereotype applies.”

Does this make any difference? The stats show that the average grade point of African American students is significantly lower than white students, around two thirds below. Moreover, the dropout college rate for African American students was 20-25% more than their white peers in the 1990s. The cause behind all of this was the racial stereotype threat and its deep impact on the African American community. 

Impact of Stereotype Threat

This threat is indeed felt by minorities everywhere but the fact is that everyone is at risk of suffering from this threat. As long as an individual identifies themselves and associates to a social group that is under attack from stereotypes and prejudices, they can suffer from stereotype threat. 

The impact is felt by different groups in different settings and some of the researched upon instances are as follows: 

• Academic performances by groups like Hispanics, females, students belonging to low socioeconomic backgrounds, and white males when compared with Asian people.
• Non-academic spheres where stereotype threat was observed were sports, the art of negotiation, childcare provided by gay men, women driving, and memory practices that involved elders.
• These threats induce self-defeating practices such as reducing practicing time to prepare for tasks, putting off participating in important and worthy tasks and completely leaving a threatening field. Some people even completely alter their professions and professional identities to avoid stereotype threat.

Curb the Threat

It is possible to overcome stereotype threat and the steps can be taken by the society and affected groups themselves. Role models from the affected group should be highlighted and examples of the success of individuals from that same group should be made prominent. Instructions of tasks that can threaten to trigger the phenomenon should be worded in a way that they are completely unpolluted. 

The battle against stereotypes rages on in every part of the world; stereotype threat can be diminished if members of minority groups practice self-affirmation, people are made aware of stereotypes and openly reject them.