To validate the efficacy of the treatment and the impact on psychological threats, students from the study were later given thirty-four word fragments that could either be turned into a stereotype-relevant word, such as "race", or a stereotype-irrelevant word, such as "face", from the fragment "ace".

Researchers found that:

• African American students in the affirmation condition generated fewer stereotype-relevant words than students in the control condition.
• European Americans did not show a difference in chosen words between conditions
• The African American students in the control group chose more stereotype-relevant words than the European American students in the control group.