Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance

Throughout history stereotyping has been used to generalize a race class. Although when a race is being stereotyped it can be done in a positive way, in many cases it has also been done in order to keep a minority group inferior. In the article, “Thin Ice” by Claude M. Steele, Steele shows how African Americans who are stereotyped or have the mental image of being stereotyped negatively can affect their success in their academic success. In the other hand, in Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou’s “The Asian American Achievement Paradox” demonstrates when a stereotype is positive it can feed one’s ego and deliver better outcomes in a people’s academic achievements. Even though a large population of people can be stereotyped in a certain way through false concepts, it can affect the mindset of a single individual.

Knowledge of negative stereotypes can influence people’s performance. Stereotype threat creates extra performance pressure through apprehensiveness about conforming to negative stereotypes (Woolfolk &

Author Shankar Vedantam in his science article “How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance” implies that if a person is subjected to stereotypes it can affect your performance. The author develops this idea by first introducing his theme with a question, then he tells of experiments others have made to support this idea, and finally he wraps it up by telling us that companies and schools are victim to stereotypes and needs to stop. The author’s purpose is to explain to us how stereotypes can affect our lives in order to call out to people so we can lower the rates of stereotyping. The author establishes a educated tone for people who are interested in research and global

Shankar Vedantam, author of Hidden Brain and NPR science correspondent informs and advocates for equality in the education system in his article “How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance” published in the Washington Post (2009). Vedantam begins his article by interacting with the audience while he asks a question,and he cites Sociologist Min-Hsuing Huang’s research on the influence that the environment has on a minority. Huang found out that: reminding minorities of their race before a test, limits them more than if they weren't reminded. Vedantam highlights the fact that Huang’s research goes unnoticed by prominent figures in….such as managers, policy makers, parents,etc. He then goes on to prove the corruption in social science that impacts the lives of every minority, which is truly everyone because anyone can be in a setting that makes them a minority.

Stereotypes can be defined as schemas applied to a group of people sharing common physical, biological or racial characteristics. Focusing on education, African American students had consistently been negatively stereotyped about their intellectual abilities. Research indicates that racial stereotypes negatively affect African American students’ academic performance. This correlation, though, is clearest among salient African American students, implying that psychological factors may result from these discriminations.

An example of this is when a psychological study asked the participants to play mini golf and the test would measure natural athletic ability. The test group was all white. The study found that the white people who thought it was testing natural athletic ability did worse than the ones who didn’t. After hearing the game was going to determine, the players performance was impaired by the awareness of the stereotype that white people aren’t naturally athletic.

When comparing the performance of Asian-American participants on a mathematical examination after having been positively stereotyped and without having been positively stereotyped, it was found that the “performance [on the test] was significantly lower in the ethnicity condition than in the control condition” (Cheryan 400). In the ethnicity-salient condition, “participants reported that they had experienced significantly poorer ability to concentrate during the math task than did participants in the control condition” (444). Therefore, positive stereotypes, in the form of salient social expectations, can place a considerable burden on stereotyped Asian Americans, “adversely affecting their performance in the stereotyped domain” (401). That is, while Asian Americans can be characterized as a high-achieving “model minority,” this characterization can lead to agitation, distraction, and lower self-confidence, which ultimately contributes to poorer academic performance. The study elucidates the mechanisms behind Asian-American negative reactions to positive stereotypes: failing to meet high expectations and the possibility that one's poor performance may threaten the reputation of one's group engenders stifling performance pressures when positive Asian stereotypes are initiated. As a result, positive stereotypes

This is a factor called “Stereotype Threat Theory which states that subgroup differences can typically be triggered by making the subgroup aware of the negative performance stereotype” (Palumbo and Steele-Johnson page#). African American and Latino students enrolled in college, that are enrolled in math and science courses score much lower on tests when reminded beforehand of their race or gender. Minorities are notn’t the only ones vulnerable to Stereotype Threat Theory (Paul). We are all vulnerable to stereotypes;, a study on white male math and engineering majors did worse on a math test when they were told the test was to determine “why Asians appear to outperform other students on tests of math ability” (Paul). By extensive research and tests conducted on stereotypes and Stereotype Threat Theory it can be concluded that stereotypes have a possible social-psychological brain mechanism that affects academic testing performance (Palumbo and Steele-Johnson). In order to fall into a stereotype category you need to be able identify yourself by gender or ethnic group (Hunt and Carlson 195). One of the last factors that maybe influence one’s intelligence is

These stereotypes affect a student’s self image. An example would be if a kid is in a sport and is good but then goes and joins band, choir, or an academic club then the other team mates might not be as friendly in a game or in person. For stereotypes impacting academics, I have heard of someone who had to drop a honors class that he really wanted to be in because he needed to practice more so he could get better at the sport because the others thought he was just a band geek and he wanted to prove them wrong. He will spend most of his time practicing for the sport or for band and not doing his academic school

Author Shankar Vedantam, in his article How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance suggests how stereotypes can affect the test performance of people who belong to a minority. He supports this claim by first giving the statistics of a study that shows how african americans score worse on a test that is given by a white person than white people taking the same test. Then he says that people who are taking the same test do worse when they are reminded that they belong to a minority. He then explains how people do not really pay attention Vedantam’s purpose is to try and show people that stereotypes can harm and actually do damage to society.

. This is a huge problem in todays society. Gender stereotypes are a set of expectations of what a girl or a boy should act and look like. While many people tend to stay in their respective stereotype, there are still many who objectify the stereotype and are usually judged for it. This has taken away the idea of being an individual.

For example, the article, “How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance” had explained how there was an experiment involving black and white people. The purpose of this experiment was to see if black people performed better when given a test by a white person or a black person. They wanted to see if the stereotype that blacks are not as high educated as whites affect them. After reading this article,

There have been many studies on stereotype threat and self-esteem and their negative effects on task performance. These studies have focused primarily on minorities such as women, blacks, Latinos and Asians and have found that stereotype threat and self-esteem have influenced negatively in task performance. Steele (1997) investigated how self-esteem and stereotype threat affects task performance and has found that most of task failures have to do with the individual social environment. For instance, a study was conducted in which black students completed a difficult task with either a black or white experimenter. The task was described as intelligent test (Steele & Aronson, 1995). When the experimenter was white, the student performed more

The presences of stereotypes are overwhelming and are developed by both the environment a subject is raised in and their family. Stereotypes, which are pervasive throughout different societies, become intertwined in the collective values of the society as justification for all forms of social, economic, and political inequality among groups (Devine and Elliot 2000;Kaplan 2004; Operario and Fiske 2004). As people become more exposed to stereotypes they start to become a permanent part of a person’s life, they begin to stereotype themselves almost always involuntarily.

The first effect of stereotyping is a phenomenon known as “stereotype threat” that occurs in a situation where a person is in fear of unintentionally confirming a negative stereotype. Several studies have been conducted to discover the effects of stereotype threats. For example, I discovered that Toni Schmader, an assistant professor of the UA psychology department, and Michael Johns, a UA graduate (ethos), conducted studies that showed, “college women score lower on tests of mathematical ability, and Hispanic students might score lower on tests of intelligence, not because they have less ability, but because reminders of negative stereotypes temporarily decrease their ‘working memory capacity’ (UA News Services, “Exploring the Negative Consequences of Stereotyping”, UANews.Arizona.edu).” This demonstrates that the students did not do worse on the test due to their lack of skills, but rather due to negative stereotypes. In a similar study by professors Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson, African American and White college students took the same intelligence test under two conditions. In the stereotype threat condition the students were told the test would evaluate their intelligence, and in the