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Emmanuel Lara
Professor Gail Taylor
English 100
22 October 2014
Stereotype Threat: A Growing Issue
Stereotype Threat, or also known as by the abbreviation ST, is defined associally
premised psychological threat that arises when one is in a situation or doing something for which
a negative stereotype about one's group applies (Anderman, p. 887). In other words: an
individual being afraid of confirming a negative stereotype. In order for this to take a place the
individual must know about the negative stereotype, and thus, be afraid to act in fear of
confirming it.
There are two types of stereotype threats, one being race/, or a much more accurate
term, ethnicity; and the second being gender. There are some stereotypes that can be categorized
under both types such as the issue of academic performance. There is the stereotype that
minorities such as Hispanics and Blacks underperform, as opposed to their White peers, in
regards to academics. This has been demonstrated through statistics and research done in
classrooms. The stereotype that women underperform against their male peers is yet another
stereotype, and this has also been researched by scientists. Therefore, an individual can fall under
both these stereotypes and feel as if they will not be able to excel in class due to the stereotype
that they have come to acknowledge and believe in.

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Image 1: Stereotypes in Science

Ouditt, Ayodhya. Stereotypes in Science. 2012. JPEG file.

Above is the image drawn by the artist Ayodhya Ouditt, who I believe was hired to draw
by, if not works for, National Public Radio (NPR). This image depicts a woman on the right side
conversing with her male peer in a lab coat which leads to the conclusion that she and her peer
are scientists. The two are discussing about a sheet of paper the male is holding and the woman
is pointing to with her pen/pencil. The woman has a thought bubble appearing over her head,
demonstrating her thinking process, and portraying her idea that her male peer is ridiculing her.
While on the left side, the male peer also wields a though bubble but only shows items such as
DNA helixes, test-tubes, chromosomes, flasks, and other items associated with the science field;
this is to portray that he is thinking about science and nothing more. The image was drawn for
the purpose to illustrate what goes on in the mind of women who work in the science field and
represents the stereotype of women feeling inferior to men when working in the science field,
which leads to the high withdrawal of women from the science field.

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The stereotype threat was a theory that began during approximately the 1980s. Currently
it is not believed to be a social issue by many colleges and universities, but as we look closely to
the articles and books being published over a period of time, we see that many articles and books
are being published after the year 2000. There has been much research done to prove that this
social issue exists, from women dropping out of both the science field and the math field due to
their belief that they underperform in it, to the stereotype of minorities not being able to
outperform their white peers. These perceptions of negative stereotypes lead many individuals
to engage in activities such as self-handicapping (Smith, 2004), challenge avoidance (Good,
Aronson, & Inzlicht, 2003), self-suppression (Steele, 1997; Pronin, Steele, & Ross, 2002), and
disidentification or disengagement with the task or the context in which the task is to be
performed (Steele, 1997; Aronson, 2002; Major et al., 1998)" (Anderman, p. 887). These
pessimistic behaviors have also been associated with: high blood pressure, altered career and/or
professional aspirations and belonging, and social distancing (Anderman, p. 887). This
psychological belief has led to many individuals to underperform, and is thus, a great issue to
address.
Many of the articles and books have referred to the Steele and Aronson experiment,
which is an experiment that was done to test the idea of stereotype threat. This experiment
consisted of African-American and European-American taking the verbal portion of the
Graduate Record Examination test. When placed in the same room (both European-American
and African-American), the stereotype threat took place and thus resulted in African-Americans
having lower test scores, but when placed in a room with no stereotype threat the AfricanAmerican group ended outperforming the European-American test scores. This comes to show
how stereotype threat leads to an underperformance by individuals who are affected by it.

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Another issue in which stereotype threat is seen is in chess performance between sexes
(Rothgerber, Hank, and Katie Wolsiefer). An experiment was done to see the performance of
both males and females in regards to chess, but every time a female player went up against a
male player she seemed to underperform. This was due to the belief in the stereotype that male
player are better at chess than women. There is approximately about only 1% of female players
that are the world's chess grandmasters, and they are able to do great when they go against other
women but when it came to goinf against their male competitors, they would make simple
mistakes.
In conclusion, the psychological impact of stereotype threat plays a key part in the
individuals performance. The belief that the stereotype is in fact true and affects them is what
leads for them to underperform. In order to stop the consequences of stereotype threat,
individuals should: one, not hear or learn about these stereotypes; two, not fall under the
influence of these stereotypes (in other words, be ignorant of these stereotypes); or three (which
is the least likely to happen), we must get rid of and forget about stereotypes. A great way to start
is by having as much positive influence on children and having a great amount of diversity at an
early age with teachers informing students that they are all the same. The idea of stereotypes
would then be minimized and these individuals would be able to perform at a greater level.

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Works Cited:
esert,

ichel,

arie r eaux, and obin Jund

o oung and lready ictims of tereotype

Threat: Socio-Economic Status and Performance of 6 to 9 Years Old Children on Raven's

Progressive Matrices." European Journal of Psychology of Education. 24.2 (2009): 207218. Print.
Mason, Patrick L. Encyclopedia of Race and Racism. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2013.
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Anderman, Eric M, and Lynley H. Anderman. Psychology of Classroom Learning: An
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Ihme, Toni

, and Jens

ller He Who Can, oes; He Who Cannot, Teaches?: tereotype

Threat And Preservice Teachers." Journal Of Educational Psychology (2014):

PsycARTICLES. Web. 25 Oct. 2014.
Nguyen, Hannah-Hanh D., and Ann Marie Ryan. "Does Stereotype Threat Affect Test
Performance Of Minorities And Women? A Meta-Analysis Of Experimental Evidence."
Journal Of Applied Psychology 93.6 (2008): 1314-1334. PsycARTICLES. Web. 25 Oct.
2014.
"'Stereotype Threat' a Factor in Test Score Gap." Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition ed. May 04
2004. ProQuest. Web. 25 Oct. 2014 .
Mankiller, Wilma, and others. "Stereotypes." The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History.
Dec. 1 1998: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 25 Oct. 2014.

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Fogliati, Vincent J., and Kay Bussey. "Stereotype Threat Reduces Motivation To Improve:
Effects Of tereotype Threat nd Feedback On Women Intentions To Improve
Mathematical Ability." Psychology Of Women Quarterly 37.3 (2013): 310-324.
Professional Development Collection. Web. 25 Oct. 2014.
Rothgerber, Hank, and Katie Wolsiefer. "A Naturalistic Study Of Stereotype Threat In Young
Female Chess Players." Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 17.1 (2014): 79-90.
Business Source Elite. Web. 25 Oct. 2014.
Vedantam, Shankar. "How Stereotypes Can Drive Women To Quit Science." NPR. NPR, 12 July
2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
econds, I Father nimated 2014 C

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Appendix: