Chapter 9: Prejudice: Disliking Others (2947.0K) - Bad Request

questions, they apparently felt added apprehension, which undermined their performances.
For female engineering students, interacting with a sexist man likewise
undermines test performance (Logel & others, 2009). Even before exams, stereotype
threat can also hamper women’s learning math rules and operations (Rydell &
others, 2010).
The media can provoke stereotype threat. Paul Davies and his colleagues (2002,
2005) had women and men watch a series of commercials while expecting that
they would be tested for their memory of details. For half the participants, the
commercials contained only neutral stimuli; for the other half, some of the commercials
contained images of “airheaded” women. After seeing the stereotypic
images, women not only performed worse than men on a math test but also
reported less interest in obtaining a math or science major or entering a math or
science career.
Might racial stereotypes be similarly self-fulfilling? Steele and Joshua Aronson
(1995) gave difficult verbal abilities tests to Whites and Blacks. Blacks underperformed
Whites only when taking the tests under conditions high in stereotype
threat. A similar stereotype threat effect has occurred with Hispanic Americans
(Nadler & Clark, 2011).
Jeff Stone and his colleagues (1999) report that stereotype threat affects athletic
performance, too. Blacks did worse than usual when a golf task was framed as a
test of “sports intelligence,” and Whites did worse when it was a test of “natural
athletic ability.” “When people are reminded of a negative stereotype about themselves—‘White
men can’t jump’ or ‘Black men can’t think’—it can adversely affect
performance,” Stone (2000) surmised.
If you tell students they are at risk of failure (as is often suggested by minority
support programs), the stereotype may erode their performance, says Steele
(1997). It may cause them to “disidentify” with school and seek self-esteem
elsewhere ( Figure 9.11 , and see “The Inside Story, Claude Steele on Stereotype
Threat”). Indeed, as African American students move from eighth to tenth grade,
there has been a weakening connection between their school performance and
self-esteem (Osborne, 1995). Moreover, students who are led to think they have
benefited from gender- or race-based preferences in gaining admission to a college
or an academic group tend to underperform those who are led to feel competent
(Brown & others, 2000).
FIGURE :: 9.11
Stereotype Threat
Cultural stereotypes
(Women do not
do well in math.)
Threat from facing a negative stereotype can produce performance deficits and disidentification.
Stereotype threat
(Female student
might fail a math test.)
Prejudice Chapter 9 347
“MATH CLASS IS TOUGH!”
—“TEEN TALK” BARBIE DOLL
(LATER REMOVED FROM THE
Performance deficits
(Female student does
not do well on math test.)
Disidentification with
stereotyped domain
(Math isn't important
for my future work.)
MARKET)