What if everyone you met had low expectations of your abilities, and it was up to you to prove them wrong? Do you think this kind of social mistrust would help or hinder your ability to do your best?
The term “stereotype threat,” coined in 1995 by researchers Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson, describes a phenomenon where the expectation of being stereotyped can produce academic underperformance. Merely thinking about overcoming a stereotype can cause anxiety so strong that it overwhelms your ability to focus, even on topics you know well. It’s a catch-22 where trying too hard to prove a stereotype wrong actually results in proving it right.
Does this sound familiar? You’re not alone. Given the right context, anyone can fall prey to stereotype threat, but in testing environments, it is most prevalent among “identity-threatened” groups underrepresented within the test subject. For medicine it might be women, African Americans, or anyone who has reason to expect that they might be viewed through the lens of stereotype.
Beat the odds with six techniques proven to reduce the effects of stereotype threat:
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