Image: Aaron Goodman
In Brief
Sterotypes and Success
- Faults in performance do not necessarily signify a dearth of skills or abilities, social scientists have found. Instead the failures may arise from awareness of stereotypes that others hold about the groups to which we belong.
- Social identity research examines not only how we both take on (internalize) and live out (externalize) identities that are shared with our peers but also how these things can change.
- This research can help us identify ways of responding to others’ stereotypes so that human talent and potential are not squandered. Although stereotypes can promote failure, they can also lift a person’s or group’s performance and be tools that promote social progress.
You tried so hard. But you failed. You did not pass the test, you performed poorly in the interview or you missed your project goal at the office. Why? Is it that you were not capable? Or could something more subtle—and worrisome—also be at work?
As it turns out, research shows that such performance failures cannot always be attributed simply to inherent lack of ability or incompetence. Although some have jumped to the highly controversial conclusion that differences in attainment reflect natural differences between groups, the roots of many handicaps actually lie in the stereotypes, or preconceptions, that others hold about the groups to which we belong. For instance, a woman who knows that women as a group are believed to do worse than men in math will, indeed, tend to perform less well on math tests as a result.
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23 Comments
Add CommentA fourth strategy for responding to the stereotype threat phenomenon would be to exploit the fact that every individual belongs to many different groups. This point is brought out beautifully and forcefully in the example of the Asian women, but it is not specifically listed as a strategy to be consciously employed by an individual. These women clearly benefited by concentrating on their membership in a racial group rather than on their identity as females. Depending on the task to be optimized, one might mentally emphasize and concentrate on one's membership in a group that had a reputation for competency with respect to that particular task.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor example, my daughter has a strong sense of belonging to a family that works comfortably and competently with mathematics and computers. If she concentrates on her identity as a member of that family instead of her identity as a female, she does much better on tasks requiring competency in those areas.
A man working on a task requiring sensitivity and verbal expertise might benefit by remembering that he has a close relationship with his mother and sisters, that he really loves to hold babies, and that he had never really felt a need to prove his manhood in fistfights at the local bar.
While there might be difficulties in finding a compatible group for a limited number of tasks, I believe the conscious recognition of one's ability to place oneself in numerous different groups that overlap in such myriad ways is beneficial in overcoming some of the limits one might otherwise impose on oneself.
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Edited by nealkmasters at 04/03/2008 2:51 AM
I wonder how to overcome the stereotypes that the disabled face? When a manifestly disabled person appears, it seems to me that many people go through a whole load of conflicting cognitive torment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMentally ill people, especially schizophrenics are supposedly stereotypically good at art. Why is it that most mentally ill people's art is so horrible? OK van gogh was a manic depressive genius, but it does not necessarily mean having mania is going to make you the next Van Gogh.
Talk about group stereotypes! How about ex-offenders, especially sex offenders? No one will hire ex-offenders, and even volunteer organizations seem reluctant to use their services. Non-violent offenders (e.g., those convicted of child porn possession) have a harder time finding jobs than armed-robbery offenders.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood heavens! This information has been out for decades! Perhaps they should read the book, "Johnny Can't Read"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd Ambrose, I absolutely agree with you.
Very Interesting. As a female in a non-trad field (engineering) I have lived this. Finally what I've known for years about how preconceptions can make-or-break performance has been validated...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article seems timely to me. My co-workers and I had been talking about how the stereotype of the community of students we work with at our high school leads seemingly successfull high school students to become couch potatoes after graduation. We have heard of such incidences over and over where the young people don't get out in the real world and start living and supporting themselves. I am sure that some kind of stereotypic threat from others could be a significant factor in this phenomenon.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEither they buy the myth that they are not capable or "too lazy" or what other stereotype that has been imposed on them or they are just scared to try the waters out, who knows, but some negative stereotype is probably at fault here.
This is bloody retarded. What do you expect? These idiots do research on how women do in math and find that they do worse then men, and then they publish their findings. Now they do research on how stereotypes affect peoples performances! What is that!? They're creating these problems in society and we follow along with them and allow them to exist! Rationalize, rationalize, rationalize, rationalize, rationalize your rationalizing, break everything up into bits and then try and put it back together; you'll never be able to put back together the way once was.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOn the theory about cognitive load...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Such elevated performance cannot easily be explained in terms of cognitive loadbecause it is hard to see how the salience of a positive in-group stereotype (as in we are good ) could increase the memory resources available to participants (relative to those in control conditions)." The memory resources don't necessarily have to increase, because that *is* unfeasible... However, maybe how it works is that negative stereotypes take up Y amount of resources in the standard X amount of cognitive capacity, but with positive statements that Y amount of resources is not taken up, because the subjects are not dwelling on how bad they are, so they have the complete X amount of memory space. That would result in "more" memory space in people subjected to positive statements.
Also, in "domains where cognitive capacity is not critical (golf or basketball, say)", prowess can decrease because of resources wasted w/subjects under-estimating their ability.
I totally agree with Durand over here..in the Dec/Jan issue the article about Why men dominate in Science and Math, projected reearch work backed with facts to prove that men are naturally better at the stuff.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThen this stereotyping stuff about stereotyping a woman about her inherent disability to outperform a man in Math was presented...it is kind of debatable as to what really scientific research has to support and what is the truth out there?!
The politicization of psychology is itself an interesting subject.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever, cognitive dissonance theory (studied by Aaronson, cited in text) would appear to be associated with the evolved mechanism of stereotyping.
Stereotyping serves important purposes in social species. Mental processes are by no means rigid. Humans and others, such as canids, appear able to learn throughout life, and fill gaps left by the loss of individuals who exhibited special skills within the pack, band, or tribe.
Cognitive load thus is a two-way street: performance under stress can often improve markedly.
The huge human population and communications media perhaps distort an individual's perception of need. In present culture, there always APPEAR to be others more suited to some task.
What does this study reveal about scholastic aptitude tests ? Some people stereotype themselves for life based on the results of the tests.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe stereotype isn't the problem, living in the context of others is the problem. I was 20 and was having a discussion with my good friend. " I said, look at me. I am 20 and in the third year of college; when all of our friends haven't even completed their first year." my friend then replied " OH! We are now comparing our potential to others?" An interesting study would be a comparison between people who remain in Self- Referral as appose to those who live in Object-Referral.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthis I am quoting a famous Henry Ford,well to me this article was nothing new ,what about the rest?
This is the sort of long-winded verbosity which made me decide not to pursue a career in psychology. Not that I'm stereotyping psychologists, of course...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis seems to rely too much on proof before trial. By this I mean that when you look into this, they are taking known entities (women doing poor at math, asians being good at math) and claiming this is caused by their negative stereotype. If they were able to provide actual scientific evidence (as most of this is just causality) I would be more inclined to agree. I like the conjecture about anxiety harboring their thought process, but nothing more was said on this matter. Until they can prove this scientifically, I will only view this subject as speculation, not scientific fact.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thispoints out the implicit nature of our biases. We can not control it. We don't think culture undermines our conscious thought and can create decisions based on "thin-slicing" that seem hypocritical.
This article and above well done,,I respect and doomed belong to all of us.I love the human brain,and a faithful future.I use the WEB as a personal dream,of a world a little better.I mean my word and correct my failure,but I am not a hippy,and I need phsy,as a car with lot of rust,I know my limits,but my little good part of me,will fail,and will try the best correction,your 3mouths fan,,,,Philippe martin,but my math above 75%,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCould there be another mechanism, other than stereotype threat, at work here? Perhaps we use the "excuse" of our group stereotype to put less effort into the activity (which we may not have a personal invetment in) than we feel we are being jusged as an individual.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWaiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering. i am just quoting paulo coelho the famous writer.it is advised to show socalled stereotyping inforgetulness because sometimes forgetting is also beneficial.it may give rise to new thoughts.but forget everything only after knowing what to do.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.”i am just quoting paulo coelho the famous writer.it is suggested to show socalled stereotyping in forgetting.because some times forgetting may give birth to new concepts.simultaneously wait for the best.but forget everythin and wait for best only after knowing what to do.
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