Stereotype Threat

You and your best friend finally get into your most anticipated class together: cultural psychology. As you scramble into your seats, the lecture kicks off with a discussion on how different cultural groups perform on standardized tests. The professor insists that racialized students consistently underperform. Immediately after, a surprise quiz is handed out. While you walk out of the lecture hall, your friend confides in you that she couldn’t focus as her mind kept circling back to the professor’s words. When the results come in, her score is unusually low as she usually aces all her tests, and she wonders aloud if it was the stereotype threat that got to her.

Stereotype threat is the fear of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s identity group. This fear can impair performance and behavior, even when the stereotype isn’t explicitly mentioned, and may result in a self-fulfilling prophecy. These negative stereotypes may be related to many aspects of identity, such as race, ethnicity, gender, culture, or other intersections. Stereotype threat can result in higher stress, anxiety, and cognitive load, reducing the mental capacity that someone has for focusing on academics, work performance, or even their ability to foster relationships.¹ In other words, stereotype threats make people question their sense of belonging and whether they are valued in a given space.

There are a handful of common places where the effects of stereotype threats are seen, due to situational, not personality-based differences. Stereotype threat has been observed in settings like standardized testing, job interviews, athletic performance, and even in seeking mental health care,² though it is key to emphasize that it can occur in any setting where identity and evaluation intersect. Let’s look at what types of scenarios have the potential to activate stereotype threat:²

Some of the classic contexts for stereotype threat are likely from groups you’ve heard about before, providing us with a possible explanation of why vulnerable groups may perform worse when negative stereotypes are under the magnifying glass. While two of the most studied groups with stereotype threat are racial minorities in academic settings and women in STEM,³ let’s take a closer look at several other important examples of groups who may be negatively affected by stereotype threat and how:²

It is critical to note that stereotype threat is a constantly evolving concept, and the list of possible victims above is by no means exhaustive. As the notion of intersectionality continuously changes, it is important to be thoughtful of how modern negative stereotypes may shape self-identity or the identity of those close to you. How can we cope with this dilemma? One way is to understand implicit bias, which can serve as an umbrella solution yet also be tailored to the unique situation, regardless of who is being negatively stereotyped.

The Role of Implicit Bias in Stereotype Threat

Even subtle cues like checking a box for gender or race can activate stereotype threat and affect outcomes. Over time, this can compound disadvantages and reinforce systemic bias. Some of these subtler, or even invisible, cues are related to implicit bias, which are unconscious attitudes we all have that impact our perception of others and the behaviors we have with different groups of people. Implicit biases may be a reflection of how your assumptions, interpersonal actions, and decision-making are related to your cultural upbringing and social conditioning.¹ Returning to the common example of stereotype threat in academic contexts, here are some reasons why implicit bias is important to consider in education:

• Implicit bias influences our expectations. It impacts how you’re assessed, receive feedback, or interact in the classroom with both teachers and other students.
• Implicit bias influences inequalities and disadvantages. If biases aren’t addressed, students with existing vulnerabilities may continue to have fewer opportunities and more limitations. 
• Implicit bias has an impact on student confidence and self-efficacy. When students hear about negative expectations, these may be internalized and lead to poor performance or an inability to perform.

How Behavioral Science Helps with Stereotype Threat and Implicit Bias

When it comes to remedies for stereotype threat and related issues like implicit bias, insights from behavioral science may help. An idea from behavioral science that can be applied here is the concept of nudges, helping us understand how we can nudge our biases—especially those that are unconscious—as a part of how we perceive others’ identity. Just as we may nudge other behaviors in the right direction for more prosocial, effective, or informed decision-making, the same can be done when acknowledging stereotype threat. 

One example of this is in the legal industry, where stereotype threat impacts who goes into legal professions and how they act depending on unconscious biases.⁴ In this case, inducing inclusion nudges into regular conversations during the hiring phase may assist with onboarding a more versatile group of candidates. We also need to consider the specific biases that come into these situations, such as the risk of affinity bias—a bias toward others more like you with in terms of interests, passions, and profession. This is key not only because stereotype threat can hinder performance or limit the advancement of marginalized people in such places, but because it can lead to the outright exclusion of those who are different from the hiring manager themselves in several roles, such as women in executive positions.