Steele, Claude M., and Joshua Aronson. "Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans." Journal of personality and social psychology 69.5 (1995): 797.

Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans

Persistent and significant gaps in academic performance and/or educational attainment between male and female students.

Gender Gap in Education

In an experimental setting, Lauer et.al found that the recommended values-affirmation writing task was able to improve female students' learning gains in several introductory science classes (Intro Bio, Biochem, Physics).

- However, survey measures found that the both the control and test populations strongly disagreed with claims that would normally contribute to stereotype threat (e.g "I expect men to generally do better than women in biology"), even among the male sub-population. 

Lauer et.al suggests that the gender-based stereotype threat may not be consistent through institutions, and that previous initiatives focused on hiring female faculty may be "paying off" by inspiring current students as more and more female instructors being teaching introductory courses. In addition, Lauer et.al suggests that there may be a "stereotype reactance" effect, where women may respond to the challenge by overperforming, rather than stress about the stereotype.

Gender Stereotype Threat in Introductory Science Courses

Rosenthal, R. (1968). Pygmalion In The Classroom. In 1113654620 841521618 L. Jacobson (Ed.), The Urban Review.


Pygmalion in The Classroom

Pygmalion effect- A psychological phenomenon where high expectations lead to increased performance. 

Increased stress and other negative effects coming from the fear of affirming stereotypes about one's identity. Measures of identity can be, but not limited to:
- Gender
- Ethnicity
- Age
- Profession

Individuals affected by Stereotype Threat may face distractions, narrowed attention, anxiety, self-consciousness, usually resulting in a decrease of personal performance.

Stanford University

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

- Social identity threat is a process that occurs when a person’s view of themselves is at threat due to being a member of a group that is marginalized in the context they find themselves in. The context is key as a group may be marginalized in one context but not in another.
- Demographic composition is especially important for marginalized groups as a low number of members of their group can signal social identity threat.
- Schools are a place where social identity threat is likely to emerge, especially if there is a preconceived notion of race and achievement. 
- Social identity threat has been shown to affect students’ performance as seen through stereotype threat (a subset of social identity threat).

Social Identity Threat in Education

Social identity threat’s contribution to racial achievement gaps in schools depends on the context of the school. For high-potential-threat-context schools, the effect of social identity threat is about 12.5%. This means that social identity threat makes up significant portion of the reason for a race achievement gap in high-potential-threat-context schools.

Social Identity Threat and Race Achievement Gap Relationship

Social Identity Threat Feedback Loop Diagram

Self-affirmation helps with boosting one’s own view of themselves through thinking about what they value most. Self-affirmation interventions help with lessening the effects of social identity threat by buffering against negative perceptions of themselves.

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