Authentic Diversity by Michelle Silverthorn

Author:Michelle Silverthorn
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780429663031
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

What Stereotype Do You Have of Me?

The idea of stereotype threat originated in 1995 with researchers Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson. Stereotype threat happens when people enter a situation where they feel at risk of conforming to stereotypes about their social group. They become anxious about their performance and fail to perform to their full potential. Even if someone doesn’t ascribe to the stereotype, they will feel stress knowing that others believe that stereotype about them, particularly in situations where that stereotype is relevant. As researchers Loriann Roberson and Carol T. Kulik note, “Every employee walking through the door of the organization knows the stereotypes that might be applied to him or her and wonders whether organizational decision makers and co-workers will endorse those stereotypes.”1

Here’s a practical example. Researchers divided participants into different groups of three – three women, two women and one man, and one woman and two men – then asked them to complete math exercises. In the two groups that included men, the women performed far worse than the women in the all-women group did.2 Another example: when researchers described a golf game as a test of natural athletic ability, Black students performed better than White students. But when researchers described the exact same game as a test of sports intelligence, White students performed better than Black students.3 It’s a similar finding to what Steele and Aronson found when they did their seminal study on stereotype threat and told one group of students that the test was for intelligence but told the other two groups of students that this exact same test was simply a challenging verbal test. Black students did worse when they believed the test was for their intelligence but far better when they believed the test was for verbal problem-solving skills.4 Why? Because in America, there is an ugly, negative stereotype about Black people and intelligence. The students had internalized that negative stereotype. The same stereotype does not exist about Black people and athletic ability or Black people and verbal problem-solving skills.

Where does stereotype threat leave Jasmine? She doesn’t take on the high-risk assignments because she’s worried that if she struggles or fails, it would reinforce the stereotype that already exists about her lack of competence. She frets in her interview when asked about her background, which makes her come across as fake and stilted instead. She’s anxious in her performance reviews and tries to cover it up by projecting indifference. She overcompensates again and again to make up for a stereotype over which she has no control. That’s half of the mud that keeps slowing her down.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.