From Wikipedia:
A stereotype threat is the experience of anxiety or concern in a situation where a person has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group. First developed by social psychologist Claude Steele and his colleagues, stereotype threat has been shown to reduce the performance of individuals who belong to negatively stereotyped groups. For example, stereotype threat can lower the intellectual performance of African-Americans taking the SAT, due to thestereotype that African-Americans are less intelligent than other groups.Since its introduction into the scientific literature in 1999, stereotype threat has become one of the most widely studied topics in the field of social psychology. Stereotype threat is often discussed as a potential contributing factor to long-standing racial and gender gaps in academic performance. However, stereotype threat may occur in any situation in which an individual has the potential of confirming a negative stereotype.
Related Situationist posts:
- Geoffrey Cohen on “Identity, Belief, and Bias”
- “The Situation of the Achievement Gap,”
- “The Project’s Second Conference – ‘Ideology, Psychology & Law’,”
- Not Just Whistling Vivaldi
- “Women’s Situational Bind,”
- “The Nerdy, Gendered Situation of Computer Science.”
- “Social Psychologists Discuss Stereotype Threat,”
- “The Gendered Situation of Chess,”
- “The Situation of Gender-Science Stereotypes,”
- “The Situation of Gender and Science,”
- “Stereotype Threat and Performance,”
- “The Gendered Situation of Science & Math,”
- “Gender-Imbalanced Situation of Math, Science, and Engineering,”
- “Sex Differences in Math and Science,”
- “You Shouldn’t Stereotype Stereotypes,”
- “Women’s Situation in Economics,”
- “Your Group is Bad at Math,” and
- “Belonging.”