Don't Threaten Me: Tackling the Stereotype Threat
August 21, 2014
The stereotype threat theory involves being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's group, whether it be sex, race, socioeconomic status, nationality, or something else. (Steele & Aronson, 1995). At the risk of sounding a little like a pharmaceutical ad ... Stereotype threat has been shown to affect stereotyped individuals' performance in a number of domains beyond academics, such as white men in sports (e.g., Stone, Lynch, Sjomerling & Darley, 1999), women in negotiation (Kray, Galinsky & Thompson, 2002), homosexual men in providing childcare (Bosson, Haymovitz & Pinel, 2004), and women in driving (Yeung & von Hippel, 2008). Of course, some members of a stereotyped group may be more vulnerable than others to the negative consequences of the stereotype threat. This often depends on how closely the member associates with the group. Further, the threat can arise situationally (e.g., "I am a woman, women are not expected to be good at math, and this is a difficult math test").
Several, in my opinion, valid criticisms of this theory exist, including over-reliance on college student samples, failure to discern between stereotype threat and real discrimination, failure to fully account for performance differences, and failure to generalize real-world settings.
Even though I am a member of a supposed stereotyped group, I can't say that I've ever really encountered the stereotype threat in a manner that has negatively affected my performance. That said, I think that it is important to always approach every situation with a "treat others as you would like to be treated" outlook. And, should it become apparent that another classmate is vulnerable to the threat, there are always ways to reframe the task at hand, de-emphasize the threatened social identities, encourage self affirmation, or reassure the classmate that there is an incremental view of intelligence due to experience and effort. With regard to feedback, it's important to remember to ask before giving - a threatened person may not be as open to feedback in a moment of panic, no matter how helpful it may be.
Finally, for those of you interested, a short, interesting, and relevant read: Give Someone a Virtual Avatar and They Adopt Stereotype Behavior