What is stereotype threat and why does it happen?

What is stereotype threat and why does it happen?

The idea that stereotypes lead to self-fulfilling prophecies is the basis for research that has explored what is called stereotype threat. Stereotype threat is essentially the fear that one will be evaluated based on negative stereotypes. Interestingly there is quite a bit of research that suggests that when facing a negative stereotype this will actually change your behaviour.

Definition:

Stereotype threat: a disruptive concern, when facing a negative stereotype, that one will be evaluated based on that stereotype. Unlike self-fulfilling prophecies that hammer one's reputation into one self-concept, stereotype threat situations have immediate effects.

In the figure below you can see the results of a classic study of stereotype threat. Stephen Spencer, Claude Steele, and Diane Quinn conducted a study (published in 1999) where they gave very difficult math questions to men and women students with similar math skills. Some women were told that the researchers expected to see a gender difference on scores. Others were told they were not expecting to see a difference. There was no reason to actually suspect any difference at all.

As you can see in the figure, when presented with the threat of a gender difference (a threatening stereotype) women performed much worse than men on the test (interestingly men seem to perform better than they did when there was no different expected). Thus, being presented with the stereotype actually had an impact on performance. This effect has been demonstrated in many different situations.