Stereotype threat is a circumstantial difficulty in which individuals feel at risk of conforming to various stereotypes regarding certain groups. According to Spencer, Steele and Quinn (1999) , circumstances that produce stereotype threat are conditions in which a highlighted stereotype affects the association of self-thought with the relevant social group. When a certain group views the other group in terms of a salient group membership such as women are not expected to be good at math, their performance can be undermined due to concerns about the confirmed stereotyped group concerning a certain group. Therefore, circumstances that heighten stereotyped groups salience identities heighten vulnerabilities to stereotype threat.
Studies indicate that stereotype threats significantly impact any person’s performance for which the circumstance invokes a poor performance of stereo-based expectation. Any social identity that influences the performance on a task provides the possibility of confirming the stereotype. The effects of stereotype have been indicated with a broad social groups range such as women in mathematics, men compared to women in social sensitivity and white compared with Asian in mathematics. The factors that play a role in a person’s vulnerability include domain identification, proactive personality, group membership and stereotype insight and belief.
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Stereotype threats have numerous consequences. One of the stereotype threat consequences is reduced performance in both non-academic and academic domains. Stigmatized groups underperform in standardized tests, classroom exams and tasks that are regarded to be free from culture or are purely cognitive ability measures. For instance, stereotype threats have impacted the performance of Hispanics, and people from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
Apart from decreasing performance of academic and non-academic domains, stereotype threats can also increase the self-defeating strategies use such as discounting task or allocating less time for a task. Discounting of a task occur when people question task validity or the significance of the tested traits. For instance, women operating in highly mathematics section under a stereotype threat can easily comply with texts such as ‘this test is not a precise measurement of my mathematics ability’. Even though task discounting helps people to safeguard themselves from poor performance effects, it undermines motivation as well as makes an individual to devalue the group if utilized quantitatively. Disengagement is another stereotype threat consequence.
In most cases, disengagement of people happens when stereotype threat makes a person to keep themselves away from a threatening domain. Sometimes, specific disengagement can be healthy and protective. After conducting a study to test intelligence by Spencer, Steele and Quinn (1999) found that blacks are less influenced by detrimental feedback after any possibility of invoking racial bias. On the other hand, disengagement can develop misidentification if a person copes with a sustainable threat by trying to avoid the domain or detaching a person’s identity from a certain domain. Stereotype threat can alter people’s aspirations and identities. It alters people’s identities and aspirations by redirecting their career paths and aspirations. For instance, women that undergraduate in the male dominated fields report higher cases of stereotype threat and discrimination. These women think of changing their major more than women that are in the women dominated fields.
Stereotype threat can happen in numerous contexts. One of the contexts that stereotype threat can happen is group identity salience. Performance as well as the decrement of a stereotype threat happens when the status of a person’s stereotyped group is apparent. Since stereotype threat originates from poor performance expectations in a particular category, any person in a group can reveal underperformance if these situations bring attention to the threatened identities. Even though stereotype threat can be encountered by members of certain groups as compared to other group, it will be unsuitable to indicate that stereotype threat is only encountered by people of conventionally affected groups. Solo or numerical minority status is another context that leads to stereotype context. In situations where a person expects to be the only representative of the numerical minority, there is high chances of developing increased stereotype threat and group identity. Stereotype salience and evaluative scrutiny are contexts that majorly contribute to stereotype threat.
In the article ‘Stereotype Threat and Women’s Math Performance’, study 1 explores the trend in various studies that women perform badly as compared to men on challenging tests and perform well on easy tests. The findings of this study show that women perform worse on difficult tests but perform well on easier test. Women that took difficult test worked 1497s while men that took difficult test worked 1539s. These findings reveal how the observed differences in literature can recreate in a chosen and identified group of respondents.
Study 2 discusses on what causes the difference in performance between men and women. According to this study, what causes the difference in men and women’s performance is stereotype threat when taking math tests. When a person takes mathematics tests, stereotype threat undermines difficult tests performance. In this study, it was found that women equaled men on easier task not because of stereotype threat but because sophisticated materials are subtle between men and women differences. In this study, men did not perform better after being told that there is no gender differences on the test as compared to when told that there is gender differences. As much as this distinction did not get importance, it may suggest that characterizing the test interfered with the performance of men. The slight women tendency in the gender differences condition to spend minimal time on the tests suggests that this condition affects participants’ motivation.
In study 3, stereotype threat mediation on women math performance was explored. The three possible mediators that were found in this study include self-efficacy, anxiety and evaluation apprehension. Findings of this study indicate that stereotype threat affects women performance on difficult standardized tests. For instance, when a person encounter a mathematics stereotype threat, they can decide to drop them or take other subjects. More so, those women that are smart and capable can still maintain a view of themselves if they misidentify themselves with math. Based on this suggestion, it can be concluded that stereotype threat can contribute to misidentification of women in mathematics.
Apart from gender stereotype as evidenced above, sexual stereotype is another stereotype threat. This type of stereotype suggests that any man that has female characters is gay and any woman that has masculine physique is lesbian. Those people who believe in gay stereotypes are likely to say that homosexuality is wrong, immoral and an abomination. Sexual stereotype have significant impact in the society. The sexist prejudices in people’s lives portray men as powerful, masterful and uncommunicative while women are regarded as communicative, emotionally responsive, helpless and incompetent. These sexes’ distortions are divisive and hinder the relationship of people that are intimate or close. The social pressure that is exerted by stereotype attitude damaged couple relationships between people of different ethnic backgrounds. Sexual stereotype confuses the thinking of individual about men and women differences. Therefore, stereotype threat ought to be assessed as a contributing factor in the real life performance gaps because it has raised publication bias possibility.
Reference
Spencer, S. J., Steele, C. M., & Quinn, D. M. (1999). Stereotype threat and women's math performance. Journal of experimental social psychology , 35 (1), 4-28.
