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

One thing we are all guilty of doing, is stereotyping. Do you see all those videos on social media platforms stereotyping how you behave, act and come to a conclusion without actually knowing? Our minds work by dissecting everything to categories, so it is normal that we stereotype people around us. However, we also need to learn how damaging stereotypes can be especially to minority groups.

This article will cover the following points:

• What is a stereotype threat?
• What are the mechanisms behind stereotype threat?
• How does it affect minority groups?

What is a Stereotype Threat?

Stereotype threat (ST) is defined as the experience of negative emotions due to a concern of being viewed through stereotypes that surrounds the group that the person belongs to [1,2,3,8]. Let’s look at two common examples:

1. Immigrants worry about not doing well in school [2] - this is true for individuals coming from both developed and developing countries. According to an analysis conducted by OECD, first generation immigrants of OECD countries are more likely to score lower in ability tests such as numerical reasoning, word fluency etc. compared to people that do not come from an immigrant background [7].
2. Women in STEM face the same pressures [3,4,5,9]. Some people believe that women are not capable of being good at STEM related majors as well as subjects. You may not be seen as smart as other people in the room because you are a woman. I’ll talk more about this case later on.

Consequently, the likelihood of succeeding in stereotype-bound aspects of life decreases [3,4,5,9]; his explains why minorities are confronted with an underperformance phenomenon - the effect where minority students and women in STEM are more likely to get lower marks compared to non-stereotyped groups [8].There is also evidence from fMRI studies [5], illustrating the impact of stereotypes on maths performance in females: normal brain activity was disrupted, and a great activation of areas related to emotional regulation was observed in the stereotype condition [5].

→ It becomes obvious then, how ST can increase opportunity and achievement gaps between different racial, economic, age, gender and cultural groups, especially in work and education.

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From Russell McClain's Ted Talk: "When you're confronted with stereotype threat it creates anxiety, what researchers call excessive cognitive load. It interferes with your ability to access memory, to perform at your peak capacity, and it depresses academic performance. It's been shown to affect kids in elementary school all the way through graduate studies."

What are the mechanisms behind stereotype threat?

Naturally, there are a myriad of factors that come into play depending on context, provenience, age and so on. In this section I will focus on the underperformance phenomenon, and so, the mechanisms that result in underperformance.‍

1. Elevated pressure from having to succeed - When people are faced with threat, they quickly attempt to avoid making that stereotype become true for themselves. Although motivation is high, the pressure decreases task-performance through three simple mechanisms:

- Mere effort - On easy tasks the person performs better. But, when the task is harder, underperformance is more common [8].

- Working memory depletion - the threat triggers physiological stress responses to suppress the negative thoughts, feelings, and beliefs the person is experiencing. Since working memory is being worked up for this purposes, memory for information that isn’t relevant to the stereotype becomes limited. You can see how this can already explain mere effort [8].

- Conscious attention to automated processes - The two previous mechanisms are all about putting in conscious effort. However, there are also things we do that are automated (e.g. riding a bike). When threatened, people will actively think about a task that is usually automated. If you try too hard to ride a bike even when you well know how to ride one, you might fall more easily [8] !

2. Attacks to self-integrity and belonging - Some people end up convincing themselves that they will perform badly anyway, which actively sabotages their performance. This is known as self-handicapping - when people self-handicap themselves, they change the result hence fulfilling the stereotype. They are fully aware of what they are doing, yet still do it. ‍

3. Priming of the stereotype - clearly, people’s actions are caused by the stereotype itself. If a stereotype is not relevant to you, it is unlikely for it to affect your behaviour, but when you are primed with a relevant stereotype, your behaviour (towards anything) can change immediately [8].

Now let’s see.. How does stereotype threat specifically affect minority groups?

Essentially:

1. Stereotype threat mostly results in worse performance, through anxiety and the aforementioned mechanisms [6,8].
2. In the long-term it can weaken or shift people’s perception of their own abilities [6,8].
3. And, in some cases of repeated exposure to stereotype threat, vulnerability to hypertension increases significantly [8].

Obviously, ST affects everyone at some point of their life. But minority groups are constantly invaded and exposed to stereotypes. It then becomes very difficult to separate truth from perceptions, and true abilities from stereotype-induced abilities.

Here are some things that we can do to decrease the stereotype threat :)

1. Remove triggering cues aka change the appearance of places - Keep study environments neutral! A study found that when females were exposed to more stereotypical objects (e.g., having a star-trek poster in a class) compared to absence of objects, they were less likely to be interested in scientific disciplines [4].
2. Reframing the threat as a challenge - When any threat is re-framed as a challenge, the person is motivated to face it. The person will develop a stress coping mechanism to adapt to the environment.
3. One action does not define you! - It is crucial to emphasise the fact that one bad performance, one action, one failure, one thought or one comment does not define you nor your abilities. We should all try not to fixate ourselves on one specific thing, nor judge others for a sole one either [1]. We are more complex than that :)  

Watch this Ted Talk conducted by Prof. Russell McClain - super interesting!

Extra resources:

• Stereotype threat example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGEUVM6QuMg
• Stereotype threat and Implicit biases (TED Talk) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiZQaE0q9BY
• Stereotype threat described: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpY6Hq9hbUo

References:

1. Alter, A. L., Aronson, J., Darley, J. M., Rodriguez, C., & Ruble, D. N. (2010). Rising to the threat: Reducing stereotype threat by reframing the threat as a challenge. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(1), 166-171.
2. Appel, M., Weber, S., & Kronberger, N. (2015). The influence of stereotype threat on immigrants: Review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 900.
3. Beasley, M. A., & Fischer, M. J. (2012). Why they leave: The impact of stereotype threat on the attrition of women and minorities from science, math and engineering majors. Social Psychology of Education, 15(4), 427-448.
4. Cheryan, S., Plaut, V. C., Davies, P. G., & Steele, C. M. (2009). Ambient belonging: how stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science. Journal of personality and social psychology, 97(6), 1045.
5. Derks, B., Inzlicht, M., & Kang, S. (2008). The neuroscience of stigma and stereotype threat. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 11(2), 163-181.
6. Harrison, L. A., Stevens, C. M., Monty, A. N., & Coakley, C. A. (2006). The consequences of stereotype threat on the academic performance of White and non-White lower income college students. Social Psychology of Education, 9(3), 341-357.
7. OECD. (2010). Closing the Gap for Immigrant Students: Policies, Practice and Performance. Paris: OECD Publishing. doi: 10.1787/9789264075788-en
8. Spencer, S. J., Logel, C., & Davies, P. G. (2016). Stereotype threat. Annual review of psychology, 67(1), 415-437.
9. Taylor, V. J., & Walton, G. M. (2011). Stereotype threat undermines academic learning. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 37(8), 1055-1067.

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