Understand yourself: Stereotype threat

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Learn what stereotype threat means and how to prevent it from hurting your success as a graduate student.

“The lack of diversity in the classroom does NOT make me the voice of all women.”

“I was once told, ‘Oh, women can’t do engineering’ just before an exam, which I ended up doing pretty badly in. This is a perfect example of stereotype threat in action.”

“The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” – Chimamanda Adichie, feminist author

“I have to go through so much to prove my intellectual abilities!”

Do you ever feel that you represent all women? Have you ever found yourself saying something stupid even though you are trying hard not to? Have you found yourself worrying that if you mess up, you will be letting other women down? Do you feel driven to get the “A” to prove that being a racial minority woman does not equate with underachievement?

Stereotype threat is a concept originated by Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson in the 1990s. According to stereotype threat, when individuals feel threatened by a task due to stereotypes about their group membership, they experience performance anxiety and, accordingly, perform worse on that task. Said differently, stereotype threat occurs when an individual is faced with an opportunity to confirm or disconfirm a negative stereotype about their group.

Stereotype threat is a situational phenomenon where the individual senses they will be judged by negative stereotypes about their group rather than their own performance. Being a member of a stigmatized group in a threatening academic environment raises the likelihood of experiencing self-doubt, heightening your sensitivity to mistakes, and interfering with your cognitive ability to focus on goal-relevant tasks.

Many studies have demonstrated experimentally (usually with undergraduate student volunteers) how racial/ethnically diverse people and women are affected by stereotype threat in educational environments. For example:

When a group of African-Americans were told that a task measured intellectual ability, they performed worse than White Americans who received the same instruction and worse than African-Americans and White Americans who were asked to perform the same task and were not told that the task measured ability.
When gender identity is primed or made salient, women’s math performance is lower.
The effects of stereotype threat might depend on the type of one’s identity that is most salient at a particular time. For example, Asian American women performed well on a test of quantitative ability when their race/ethnicity was made salient but performed worse overall when their gender was made salient.
When identity group members who are not the target of a negative stereotype (e.g., men, White students) are told their group is superior to others on a task (like math performance), they do better than a stereotyped group and better than in non-stereotyped conditions. This phenomenon is called stereotype lift.
Women more aware of gender stigma are likely to reject their gender identity, which in turn results in negative perceptions of campus climate. Negative perceptions of campus climate predict greater experiences of stereotype threat, which predict greater academic disengagement, which in turn predicts lower self-esteem.
Stereotype threat effects can be stronger when you are the only one or one of a few in a setting. Women’s performance in male-dominated settings (engineering and math in particular) is often impacted negatively by stereotype threat.
In educational environments where women are already negatively stereotyped (e.g., engineering), interacting with a sexist man (i.e., behaving in a dominant and sexually interested way) undermines women’s performance on engineering tests.

Success in graduate school depends on performance and perceived ability. As a woman in a STEM field, you are likely aware of the stereotype that women are less able to do the work of science and math than men. That does not necessarily mean, however, that you have recognized how the academic environment influences situational performance.

If you are unaware of the effects of stereotype threat and do not understand where performance anxiety is coming from, your confidence might take a hit. This lowered confidence can have consequences for your motivation and future performance. For more, see Coping and Self-Efficacy.

Self-test

True or False? Being a woman in a male-dominated field can potentially have a negative affect on academic performance.

A. True
B. False

A is the correct answer,

The correct answer is True. In situations that call for a member of a particular minority to uphold or disconfirm a stereotype related to their minority, they can experience significant stress and/or anxiety. This in turn can cause them to under/over-perform in response, thus “living up” to the stereotype. In these cases, it is not a true indicator of the person’s ability, but actually an environmental effect known as Stereotype Threat.

Alexis and Carolina are both 2nd year students in computer engineering. They work in the same lab and share the same advisor. Alexis and Carolina have a similar dream of acquiring a tenure-track faculty position on the West Coast. The pair work around the clock but still face stereotypes about their racial group as it pertains to their intellect and ability to be in their programs.

ALEXIS:
Stereotype Threat
Alexis believes that she is not good at standardized testing because she has done poorly on tests in the past. Plus, she knows that research says Black students perform worse than their White counterparts on standardized tests.

Effects
When Alexis becomes aware of testing stereotypes, she performs poorly, which has impacted how she views herself as well as how she performs on exams in her program.

CAROLINA:
Stereotype Threat
Carolina is the only Latina in her program and the only woman in her math class. Carolina sits in the back of the class and rarely participates because she does not want to answer incorrectly. Carolina often notices that she freezes when asked to participate, despite knowing the correct answer.

Effects
The stereotypes Carolina faces in her program and class have taken a toll on her desire to speak up in class out of fear she will make herself and other women of color look bad if she is ever wrong.

The good news is that knowing about stereotype threat can actually reduce its detrimental effects. In this case, knowing is half the battle.

If you are able to recognize that your anxiety is related to stereotype threat (as opposed to a lack of ability), you might be able to reduce the anxiety and the negative effects of stereotype threat.

In addition to keeping the concept of stereotype threat in mind, try these other strategies:

Practice your positive self-talk. (See Increase Positive Self-Talk)

Work on having a growth mindset (Dweck, 2008). Even when you think your performance was not ideal, remember “growth mindset,” the idea that intelligence is not fixed but can change and grow incrementally, with practice and “exercise.” Also see How You Think.

Cultivate your sense of belonging. Academic struggle is common and does not mean you don’t “belong” in your STEM program. Talk with other women for mutual support.

Seek mentorship. If you are experiencing anxiety related to your fear of confirming a stereotype, talk to a mentor who may have had similar challenges (see What You Want in a Mentor).

Remember your goals. While racial and gender stereotypes are powerful, they are not deterministic, so always remember your WHY (see Career Goals)

Compose a letter to a future student about a time when you experienced performance anxiety on a task where diverse women are stereotyped negatively. This act of writing your own narrative about performance struggles and perseverance can help you become more aware of how stereotypes affect you and internalize the message that academic struggle is common.

If you send the letter to a student, you will also be helping a peer and building a sense of community.

Block, C. (2019). Inside the prism of an invisible threat: Shining a light on the hidden work of contending with systemic stereotype threat in STEM fields. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 113, 33–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.09.007

Cadaret, H. (2017). Stereotype threat as a barrier to women entering engineering careers. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 99, 40–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.12.002

Casad, P. (2018). A model of threatening academic environments predicts women STEM majors’ self-esteem and engagement in STEM. Sex Roles, 80(7-8), 469–488. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0942-4

Deemer, T. (2014). Feeling the threat: Stereotype threat as a contextual barrier to women’s science career choice intentions. Journal of Career Development, 41(2), 141–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845313483003

Doyle, R. A., & Voyer, D. (2016). Stereotype manipulation effects on math and spatial test performance: A meta-analysis. Learning and Individual Differences, 47, 103–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2015.12.018

Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House Digital, Inc..

Johns, M., Schmader, T., & Martens, A.. (2005). Knowing is half the battle: Teaching stereotype threat as a means of improving women’s math performance. Psychological Science, 16(3), 175–179. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00799.x

McGee, E. (2018). “Black Genius, Asian Fail”: The detriment of stereotype lift and stereotype threat in high-achieving asian and Black STEM students. AERA Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858418816658

McGee, E. & Martin, D. (2011). “You would not believe what i have to go through to prove my intellectual value!” Stereotype management among academically successful Black mathematics and engineering students. American Educational Research Journal, 48(6), 1347–1389. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831211423972

Ong, M., Smith, J., & Ko, L.T. (2018). Counterspaces for women of color in STEM higher education: Marginal and central spaces for persistence and success. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 55, 206-245. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21417

Pennington, C. R., Heim, D., Levy, A.R., & Larkin, D.T. (2016) Twenty years of stereotype threat research: A review of psychological mediators. PLoS ONE 11(1): e0146487. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0146487

Schuster, C., Schuster, C., Martiny, S., & Martiny, S. (2017). Not feeling good in STEM: Effects of stereotype activation and anticipated affect on women’s career aspirations. Sex Roles, 76(1), 40–55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0665-3

Schmader, T. (2010). Stereotype threat deconstructed. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(1), 14–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721409359292

Steele, C. (1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. The American Psychologist, 52(6), 613–629. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.52.6.613

Steele, C., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 797–811. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.797

Yeager, D., & Dweck, C. (2020). What can be learned from growth mindset controversies? The American Psychologist, 75(9), 1269–1284. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000794

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