Stereotype Threat

Everyday humans are affected by negative stereotyping. Stereotyping can have lasting effects on a person. Some people feel like the odd person walking down the street do to stereotyping. Some of the negative effects of stereotyping are inability to focus, performing poorly, and falling into harsh stereotyping.

How do you deal with stereotypes towards yourself or others that have experienced them? People are stereotyped by their physical features and by the information we know about a certain group. They are judged by their physical features instead of seeing what they are really capable of doing. Usually not being involved in such a diverse community can cause that because they are accustomed to what's near them. Exploring and learning about others will help shatter stereotypes. We'll explore in Sucheng Chan and Judith Ortiz Cofer essays on how they've been stereotyped and what they've done to shatter the quo.

Stereotypes are unescapable. No matter what part of the world you are at or who you are talking to, everyone has some bias. Claude Steele say’s exactly this in his book “Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do” when he states “ We could all take out a piece of paper, write down the major stereotypes of these identities, and show a high degree of agreement in what we wrote.” His piece addresses the effects of stereotypes, which result in what Steele calls “stereotype threat”. Stereotype threat is being aware that there is an expected behavior or response to a certain part of your identity and being afraid to carry out this expected behavior or response. The threat of proving this stereotype can cause you to lose

Stereotype threat is when a person who belongs to a group that has previously been negatively stereotyped unintentionally lets their self- doubt affect their performance, thereby positively confirming the negative stereotype about that said group. An example of this would be how white males who are taking a math test perform worse when they believe they are competing against Asian males taking the same test. Test validity refers to the ability in which a test accurately measures what it is proposing to measure. For example, if a teacher tells her class they are going to be tested on addition, problems like 5+5= and 10+10= would yield valid test results. However, if the questions were 5x5= and 10x10=, the results of the test would hold no validity,

Results from numerous studies suggest that African Americans are likely to experience stereotype threat related to performance in Caucasian dominated tasks. Steele & Aronson (1995) conducted a study that examined the effects of stereotype threat of African Americans on standardized tests. The participants included African American and Caucasian Stanford University students who completed a modified version of the verbal GRE examination (Steele & Aronson, 1995). Participants were randomized into two testing groups, the diagnostic condition, which tested intellectual ability and exposure to stereotype threat, and the non-diagnostic condition, which involved laboratory problem solving tasks unrelated to stereotype threat (Steele & Aronson, 1995).

Being a young Caucasian woman, I feel as though society has stereotyped me as a coffee drinking, yoga loving, UGG boot wearing female incompetent of thinking for herself. I am expected to drive a new Mercedes Benz, throw a temper tantrum when daddy won't hand over his credit card, and have a mental breakdown when the holidays come to an end because that means the infamous Starbucks pumpkin spice latte will no longer be available. Social media has coined a phrase for these issues and that is “white girl problems”. I prefer the term “racial stereotyping”.

According to the new FBI numbers, 47 percent of hate crimes in 2014 were motivated by race, over 20 percent by anti-LGBT animus, and approaching 19 percent by religion (Potok 2). The use of hate speech is a precursor to more serious crimes that greatly impact the United States, especially within politics. Hate speech should be seen as a precursor to more serious crimes and violence because hate speech causes society to be more accepting toward certain violent behaviors and hate speech allows for negative stereotypes to be used against marginalized groups of people.

In todays modern world, stereotype threats are seen widely, yet are not spoken about very often. Darnell Rock Reporting is a book published in 1994 by Dean Myers, which focuses on a seventh grader by the name of Darnell Rock who attends Oakdale High School. Darnell Rock is a student who is known for being a troublemaker and spends most of the time at the principal’s office. Since he is known for being a bad kid, people stereotype him as if that is all he is good for. Darnell meets a man by the name of Sweeby who is homeless and along with Darnell Sweeby is also stereotyped. Although both Darnell and Sweeby are stereotyped in a negative way, both of them end the story with a positive outcome.

Stereotype threat is a perception of fear that a person experiences in circumstances when they feel they may inadvertently confirm a negative stereotype of a social group in which they are a part of. The powerful effect of stereotype threat has been explored to determine the root of the issue, who is most susceptible and what can be done to lessen the negative impacts it imparts on victims. The essay In the Air between Us by Claude M. Steele examines the dynamic pressure stereotype threat places specifically on African American students in a collegiate academic setting. This essay uses compelling case studies to examine the everyday impact of this phenomenon, while searching for solutions to diminish its effect. I will prove through use of Steele’s essay, additional case

According to the new FBI numbers, 47 percent of hate crimes in 2014 were motivated by race, over 20 percent by anti-LGBT animus, and approaching 19 percent by religion (Potok 2). The use of hate speech leads to imminent hate crimes, especially when such speech is ramped within politics. Hate speech should be seen as a precursor to more serious crimes and violence because hate speech causes society to be more accepting toward certain violent behaviors and hate speech allows for negative stereotypes to be used against marginalized groups of people.

Stereotyping leads to prejudice. If I am walking in a park and I see a group of people walking towards me (lets say all are white males) and they are dressed up and look very nice. I do not panic, now another group is walking towards me and now this group is all men (African Americans) and they are dressed and conduct themselves just the same as the first group, but I panicked with this group. Why because I stereotyped the second group and if I was prejudice no matter how they dressed or acted I would be afraid of them because they are black. I judge them based on skin color and not on individuality.

Resisting stereotypes can be difficult and can make a situation either positive or negative. For example, when a person gets involved in a stereotype incident they either can be very calm and quiet or out lash at the person. There are times when they are completely confused about the situation and ask someone else about the situation, which would most likely make them uncomfortable and the impression is left awkward.There's also the possibility that the person can be astonished because it's

Stereotype threat is a belief in which one person may think that they are being evaluated based on negative stereotypes. Because of this, students who are reminded of negative stereotypes about their race/gender tend to perform worse on tests because it makes them feel inferior. This causes anxiety within a student and causes them to perform worse than they otherwise would if they weren't reminded of their race or gender before the test. So for example, if an African American college student is sitting within a classroom of all white students he/she will be reminded of their race. This causes the student to constantly be aware of their race and will cause the anxiety so they won't perform as well while taking it with all white students in the

Stereotype threats are negative consequences about one’s race, sex, nationality, or social group. Stereotype threats are used a lot more frequently than people realize. Gender is a powerful stereotype that affects many people’s decisions and actions. The stereotype of women in the workplace has come a long way even in the last twenty years. Many businesses tend to want to diversify their demographics by making the ratio of men to women almost equal. “Demographic projections anticipate that by the year 2000 women will exceed 50 per cent of the total workforce…” (Johnston and Packer, 1987). Women were able to make their way in to the workplace when men were off at war during the 1950s. During this time, women proved their ability to do the same kind of jobs men did. Many women worked as machinist, factory workers, and clergies.

Is it possible that the way society sees a group can influence how that group performs on tests of intelligence? According to the Stereotype Threat Theory, it can. Stereotype Threat Theory “refers to the conscious or unconscious belief that one belongs to a group stereotypically known for specific performance deficits. The hypothesis is that these beliefs lead to suboptimal performance on tasks specific to the stereotype” (Stoet 94). Stereotype threat leads to a large gap between privileged, un-stereotyped groups and affected groups in society with regards to jobs, education, and social interactions. This gap comes from stereotyped groups feeling they need to act in the way society tells them to, creating societal “chains” on these groups, essentially an unstated law telling them what they can and cannot do. This is because stereotype threat causes groups to identify with what society provides their status to be Experiments show commonly stereotyped groups perform worse on intellectual tests they are told their group generally does bad on. Therefore, commonly stereotyped groups suffer from the stereotype threat on intellectual tests.