Stereotype Threat and the Social and Scientific Contexts of the Race Achievement Gap.

Comments on an article by Paul Sackett, Chaitra Hardison and Michael Cullen entitled On Interpreting Stereotype Threat as Accounting for African American-White Differences on Cognitive Tests (see record 2004-10043-001). In their article, Sackett, Hardison, and Cullen (see record 2000-16592-021) critiqued misrepresentations of the original stereotype threat findings presented by Steele and Aronson. They criticized representations of the research that suggest that stereotype threat explains all the racial achievement gap in academic performance when, in fact, the original studies statistically equated the ability of Black students and White students by using SAT scores as a covariate. As Sackett et al. acknowledged, Steele and Aronson did not claim that stereotype threat explains all the racial achievement gap, though as they suggested in their critique, it may have been a claim made implicitly and even explicitly in some media and textbook coverage of the work. The authors of this comment wish to make three points that Sackett and colleagues did not make. These points highlight the social and scientific contexts in which Sackett et al.'s critical commentary, and stereotype threat research in general, can be interpreted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stereotype Threat Does Not Live by Steele and Aronson (1995) Alone.

This comment notes that P. R. Sackett et al (see record 2004-10043-001) have raised a concern: that 29 mischaracterizations of an experiment from C. M. Steele and J. Aronson (see record 1996-12938-001) spread over 8 years of media reports, journal articles, and textbooks could mislead teachers, students, researchers, policymakers, and parents into believing that the African American-White test-score gap is entirely caused by stereotype and not at all by group differences in opportunities and test-related knowledge, and that this belief could undermine efforts to improve African American students' academic skills. Sackett et al focus on the reporting of only a single experiment from the first published article on stereotype threat. It is argued that this extremely narrow focus greatly exaggerates three issues. These issues are addressed in turn. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stereotype Threat Might Explain the Black-White Test-Score Difference.

Comments on an article by Paul Sackett, Chaitra Hardison and Michael Cullen entitled On Interpreting Stereotype Threat as Accounting for African American-White Differences on Cognitive Tests (see record 2004-10043-001). In their correction of the ostensibly widespread misinterpretation of Steele and Aronson's (see record 2000-16592-021) seminal study of the effects of stereotype threat on intellectual test scores, Sackett, Hardison, and Cullen expressed dismay and puzzlement that so many erudite people consistently have gone so far astray in their understanding of this matter. The gist of Sackett et al.'s correction was that interpreters of Steele and Aronson's results have ignored the researchers' statistical adjustment of their dependent measure for SAT scores and, consequently, have wrongly concluded that racial-group (i.e., Black-White) differences in test scores disappear when stereotype threat is removed. In their justification for this much needed clarification, Sackett et al. (2004) implied that the interpretation that stereotype threat explains the Black-White test score disparity is not plausible. Yet whether or not the construct of stereotype threat generally can account for the Black-White test-score disparity was not the question that was directly addressed by either Steele and Aronson's (1995) original study or Sackett et al.'s (2004) critique of it. It appears that Sackett et al. (2004), as well as the many people responsible for the allegedly faulty interpretation, essentially want an answer to the question, What causes or explains racial-group difference(s) in Black-White test scores? This question logically flows from (a) reviews demonstrating the chronic resistance of these differences to psychoeducational interventions, (b) general recognition that racial-group membership cannot cause behavior (e.g., differences in test scores), as well as (c) acknowledgment that use of test scores for high-stakes decision making under prevailing circumstances amounts to "racial profiling" condoned by society and the law. Therefore, if stereotype threat or analogous race or culture-related psychological constructs could be shown to account for the Black-White testscore disparity, then society would be relieved of the burden of unfair testing practices, and Sackett et al. would be relieved of the burden of "heading off future interpretive errors" (p. 11) regarding Steele and Aronson's results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stereotype Threat Research and the Assumptions Underlying Analysis of Covariance.

Comments on an article by Paul Sackett, Chaitra Hardison and Michael Cullen entitled On Interpreting Stereotype Threat as Accounting for African American-White Differences on Cognitive Tests (see record 2004-10043-001). Sackett, Hardison, and Cullen discussed the role of covariates in Steele and Aronson's (see record 2000-16592-021) seminal research on the effects of stereotype threat on scores of African American test takers. Besides highlighting some common misinterpretations that stem from the use of covariance-adjusted means in reporting Steele and Aronson's (Study 2) experimental results, Sackett et al. argued that these results indicate that Black-White testscore difference within the no-stereotype threat (i.e., nondiagnostic) condition actually reflects the test score difference on the SAT (i.e., the covariate). This implies that stereotype threat effects add to the often found Black-White test score gap instead of partly accounting for it (Sackett et al., 2004). Here the author comments on the use of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) in stereotype threat (ST) experiments, because ST theory implies violations of the assumptions underlying ANCOVA. Such violations could result in incorrect Type I error rates and distortions in the adjustment of means. Because of this, ANCOVA appears inappropriate for analyzing (quasi-) experimental results of ST research. In addition, the interpretation proposed by Sackett et al. of Steele and Aronson's results may be due to distortions of mean adjustments caused by violations of model assumptions. While avoiding technical detail, the author provides the assumptions underlying ANCOVA and discuss why these assumptions do not sit well with several aspects of ST theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the Value of Correcting Mischaracterizations of Stereotype Threat Research.

Replies to comments by C. M. Steele and J. Aronson (see record 2004-10043-009) on the mischaracterizations alleged by P. R. Sackett et al (see record 2004-10043-001) in the 1995 experiment by Steele and Aronson (see record 1996-12938-001) on the intellectual test performance of African Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stereotyping and its threat are real.

Replies to comments by A. L. Whaley (see record 1998-02607-012) regarding C. M. Steele's (see record 1997-04591-001) discussion of stereotype threat theory and domain identification as extra pressures that affect the test performance and academic identities of African Americans and women in math. Steele describes and responds to Whaley's 3 major critiques: first, that the concept of stereotype threat does not include the possibility of being threatened by real discrimination; second, that tests of stereotype threat theory with African American students do not take into account the possibility that these student may perform less well on standardized testes because they do not trust these tests or are less culturally motivated to perform; and third, that stereotype threat-disidentification theory may not generalize to the experience of lower-class, urban African American students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On Interpreting Research on Stereotype Threat and Test Performance.

The authors comment on the comments (see records 2005-03019-016; 2005-03019-017; 2005-03019-018) made on their original article entitled On Interpreting Stereotype Threat as Accounting for African American-White Differences on Cognitive Tests (see record 2004-10043-001). The authors welcome the thoughtful insights of Wicherts, Helms, and Cohen and Sherman, and they hope that these comments stimulate further critical analysis of methodological issues associated with stereotype threat research. The authors do not dispute that stereotype threat is a real phenomenon or that it remains a potentially important contributor to the racial achievement gap. They encourage researchers to continue their efforts to determine what role stereotype threat plays in contributing to that gap, especially in real-world testing situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues of validity in empirical tests of stereotype threat theory.

Comments on an article by C. M. Steele ( 1997-04591-001) that presented a theory to account for the lower intelligence test performance of Black students and poorer math and science performance of women. This comment focuses on the intelligence test performance of African Americans. In particular, the author argues that issues of internal and external validity must be addressed to increase the explanatory power of stereotype threat theory. Moreover, there are conceptual models that were not represented, and they offer competing hypotheses that, if supported, could threaten the validity of Steele's theory. These alternative perspectives and their implications for stereotype threat theory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Targets as perceivers: How people determine when they will be negatively stereotyped.

Research on stereotype threat has demonstrated that when targets are forced to contend with the threat of being negatively stereotyped, their academic performance suffers (C. M. Steele & J. Aronson, 1995). The present research explored how the targets of negative stereotypes determine when they must contend with this threat. Across 5 experiments, the authors manipulated both the possibility and probability that Black and female students would be stereotyped as unintelligent prior to taking an analytical test. Collectively, these experiments showed that these students contended with stereotype threat only when they perceived that it was both possible and probable that they would be negatively stereotyped. The authors discuss the implications of these findings on the experience of being the target of negative stereotypes and on the academic achievement of Blacks and women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activating stereotypes undermines task performance expectations.

According to the theory of stereotype threat (C. M. Steele, 1997; C. M. Steele & J. Aronson, 1995), activating stereotypes about a group's typical underperformance on a task can undermine a group member's performance on that task. The goal of the present research was to more fully delineate the contexts that activate task-performance stereotypes and the mechanisms that might lead to, or potentially prevent, such performance decrements. In 2 experiments, individuals led to believe that they had high ability on a task predicted that they would do better on future performances of the same or similar tasks than did those given ambiguous feedback about their task abilities when stereotypes were not accessible. However, activating group stereotypes—for instance, by creating expected solo status—undermined these positive expectations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The difference isn't black and white: Stereotype threat and the race gap on raven's advanced progressive matrices.

This study addresses recent criticisms aimed at the interpretation of stereotype threat research and methodological weaknesses of previous studies that have examined race differences on Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM). African American and White undergraduates completed the APM under three conditions. In two threat conditions, participants received either standard APM instructions (standard threat) or were told that the APM was an IQ test (high threat). In a low threat condition, participants were told that the APM was a set of puzzles and that the researchers wanted their opinions of them. Results supported the stereotype threat interpretation of race differences in cognitive ability test scores. Although African American participants underperformed Whites under both standard and high threat instructions, they performed just as well as Whites did under low threat instructions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

“Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers”: Correction.

Reports an error in "Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers" by Christine Logel, Gregory M. Walton, Steven J. Spencer, Emma C. Iserman, William von Hippel and Amy E. Bell (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2009[Jun], Vol 96[6], 1089-1103). The affiliation for William von Hippel is incorrect. The affiliation should have been University of Queensland. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2009-07435-001.) Social identity threat is the notion that one of a person’s many social identities may be at risk of being devalued in a particular context (C. M. Steele, S. J. Spencer, & J. Aronson, 2002). The authors suggest that in domains in which women are already negatively stereotyped, interacting with a sexist man can trigger social identity threat, undermining women’s performance. In Study 1, male engineering students who scored highly on a subtle measure of sexism behaved in a dominant and sexually interested way toward an ostensible female classmate. In Studies 2 and 3, female engineering students who interacted with such sexist men, or with confederates trained to behave in the same way, performed worse on an engineering test than did women who interacted with nonsexist men. Study 4 replicated this finding and showed that women’s underperformance did not extend to an English test, an area in which women are not negatively stereotyped. Study 5 showed that interacting with sexist men leads women to suppress concerns about gender stereotypes, an established mechanism of stereotype threat. Discussion addresses implications for social identity threat and for women’s performance in school and at work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 97(4) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2009-16971-002). The affiliation for William von Hippel is incorrect. The affiliation should have been University of Queensland.] Social identity threat is the notion that one of a person’s many social identities may be at risk of being devalued in a particular context (C. M. Steele, S. J. Spencer, & J. Aronson, 2002). The authors suggest that in domains in which women are already negatively stereotyped, interacting with a sexist man can trigger social identity threat, undermining women’s performance. In Study 1, male engineering students who scored highly on a subtle measure of sexism behaved in a dominant and sexually interested way toward an ostensible female classmate. In Studies 2 and 3, female engineering students who interacted with such sexist men, or with confederates trained to behave in the same way, performed worse on an engineering test than did women who interacted with nonsexist men. Study 4 replicated this finding and showed that women’s underperformance did not extend to an English test, an area in which women are not negatively stereotyped. Study 5 showed that interacting with sexist men leads women to suppress concerns about gender stereotypes, an established mechanism of stereotype threat. Discussion addresses implications for social identity threat and for women’s performance in school and at work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance.

A general theory of domain identification is used to describe achievement barriers still faced by women in advanced quantitative areas and by African Americans in school. The theory assumes that sustained school success requires identification with school and its subdomains; that societal pressures on these groups (e.g., economic disadvantage, gender roles) can frustrate this identification; and that in school domains where these groups are negatively stereotyped, those who have become domain identified face the further barrier of stereotype threat, the threat that others' judgments or their own actions will negatively stereotype them in the domain. Research shows that this threat dramatically depresses the standardized test performance of women and African Americans who are in the academic vanguard of their groups (offering a new interpretation of group differences in standardized test performance), that it causes disidentification with school, and that practices that reduce this threat can reduce these negative effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stereotype threat effects on Black and White athletic performance.

Two experiments showed that framing an athletic task as diagnostic of negative racial stereotypes about Black or White athletes can impede their performance in sports. In Experiment 1, Black participants performed significantly worse than did control participants when performance on a golf task was framed as diagnostic of "sports intelligence." In comparison, White participants performed worse than did control participants when the golf task was framed as diagnostic of 'natural athletic ability." Experiment 2 observed the effect of stereotype threat on the athletic performance of White participants for whom performance in sports represented a significant measure of their self-worth. The implications of the findings for the theory of stereotype threat (C. M. Steele, 1997) and for participation in sports are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Compositional diversity and the research productivity of PhD graduates.

Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the relationship between the compositional diversity in 20 academic programs in a Research Extensive college of education and the research productivity of 275 PhD graduates of these programs. Compositional diversity in terms of race and ethnicity was operationalized with Chang's (1999) diversity index; cumulative number of refereed articles and chapters published within two years of graduation was the measure of research productivity. Results showed that, after controlling for individual differences in Graduate Record Examination scores, greater compositional diversity was related to the increased research productivity for African American and International PhD graduates but not to the research productivity of Asian American, Latina/Latino, or White PhD graduates. Because compositional diversity was unrelated to the research productivity of White students, the findings suggest compositional diversity may have its effects by reducing the stereotype threat for African American and International PhD graduates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

We Can Do It: The Interplay of Construal Orientation and Social Comparisons Under Threat.

The authors investigated how a collective self-construal orientation in combination with positive social comparisons "turns off" the negative effects of stereotype threat. Specifically, Experiment 1 demonstrated that stereotype threat led to increased accessibility of participants' collective self ("we"). Experiment 2 showed that this feeling of "we-ness" in the stereotype threat condition centered on the participants' stereotyped group membership and not on other important social groups (e.g., students). Experiment 3 indicated that in threat situations, when participants' collective self is accessible, positive social comparison information led to improved math test performance and less concern, whereas in nonthreat situations, when the collective self is less accessible, positive comparison information led to worse test performance and more concern. Our final experiment revealed that under stereotype threat, only those comparison targets who are competent in the relevant domain (math), rather than in domains unrelated to math (athletics), enhanced participants' math test performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Claude M. Steele: Award for Distinguished Senior Career Contributions to the Public Interest.

Provides the biography of Claude M. Steele and announces that he has won the Award for Distinguished Senior Career Contributions to the Public Interest for his influential and groundbreaking work on stereotype threat that has been critical in defining and documenting psychologists' understanding of how societal messages about identity and competency affect the performance and life decisions of racial/ethnic minority-group members and of girls and women. A selected bibliography is also provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using SAT-Grade and Ability-Job Performance Relationships to Test Predictions Derived From Stereotype Threat Theory.

To examine the generalizability of stereotype threat theory findings from laboratory to applied settings, the authors developed models of the pattern of relationships between cognitive test scores and outcome criteria that would be expected if the test scores of women and minority group members were affected by stereotype threat. Two large data sets were used to test these models, one in an education setting examining SAT-grade relationships by race and gender and the other in a military job setting examining Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery-job performance relationships by race. Findings were not supportive of the predictions arising from stereotype threat theory, suggesting caution in positing threat as a key determinant of subgroup mean test score differences in applied settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)