This graph represents mean academic performance amongst African American and European American students, before and after the intervention.

University of Georgia

African American students in the treatment (affirmation) condition earned a higher fall-term GPA in the targeted course, compared to those in the control condition, where there was no effect on performance. The affirmation treatment proved to be equally as effective for poor and moderate performing students but was not as effective for high performing students. The impact of the treatment benefited almost 70% of African American students in the study. The average performance gap between African American and European American students in this study was a .75 grade point difference, for the fall term in the targeted course. The treatment effect for African American students in the affirmation group was .26 grade points (in study 1), and the chance of observing two effects of this magnitude by chance is 1 in 5000. The treatment effect lowered this racial achievement gap by 40% in the targeted course. The rate of poor performance, in the targeted course, amongst African American students in the control group was 20%, while it was 9% in the treatment group. Because of these effects, the effect on overall GPA was virtually as significant as it was on the grade in the targeted course (P < .02). There was no treatment effect for European Americans and no variance between condition groups.


Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention- Findings

Cohen, G. L., Apfel, N., Garcia, J., & Master, A. (2006). Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention. Science, 313(5791), 1307-1310. DOI:10.1126/science.1128317

Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention

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. 

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