stereotype threat and the nature and nurture of intelligence · conceptions of the nature of...

Stereotype Threat

and the Nature and Nurture

of Intelligence

Joshua Aronson

New York University

New Orleans ADEA 10-29-2010

The Black-White GapPrison or Missing

Blacks vastly overrepresented in US Prisons/MIA

College

Blacks 1/2 as likely to go; 2x as likely to drop out

High School:

50% drop out rate; 2-4 year reading gap

K-12

Lower standardized test scores and grades

Birth-Preschool

Equal ability test scores

1 Million Black Males Are Missing

Common Explanations for Gap

1. Lower innate IQ

--The Bell Curve

2. Poverty (lower skills and preparation)

3. Subculture that discourages academic success

―Acting White‖

But: Larger Culture of Anti-intellectualism

Larger Culture of Anti-Intellectualism

International Comparisons

―The test was so easy that I think

that if the kids in America couldn‘t

do this, they‘re really stupid‖

Belgian High School Student

Larger Culture of Anti-

IntellectualismSurveys indicate that among Americans:

• 20% Believe that the Sun revolves around Earth

• 20 % Cannot locate the U.S. on a World Map

• 80% believe the government is hiding evidence of space

Aliens

International tests:

• Reveal US students to be surprisingly less educated than

Asian and European countries—but highest in self esteem!

American Anti-Intellectualism

An

African Americans fail in school not

because they are African; they fail in

large part because they are American.

Aronson‘s First Law:

All of the traditional explanations fall

short of fully explaining the gap, even

when combined in a regression

analysis; something else must be

involved…

Part One:

Intelligence is both Fragile and

Malleable

Operational Definition: Intelligence = IQ

Scores, Performance in School, Verbal

Fluency, etc.

―Human intelligence is among the most

fragile things in nature. It doesn‘t take

much to distract it, suppress it, or even

annihilate it.‖

--Neil Postman

―A massive body of evidence says that reading

and mathematics achievement have strong ties to

underlying intellectual ability, that we do not

know how to change intellectual ability after

children reach school.‖

Charles Murray, Bell Curve coauthor (2008)

Conceptions of the nature of

Intelligence

“The mind is much more like a muscle than we’ve ever realized… it needs to get cognitive exercise. It’s not some piece of clay on which you put an indelible mark.”

James Flynn, intelligence expert, 2007

―Human intelligence is more fragile and malleable

than most people think—far more so than the than

the makers of the SAT and other tests would have

us believe. ‖

Joshua Aronson (2009)

• Interpersonal Chemistry (feeling smarter,

funnier, etc. with certain people)

• Threatened Safety (Sharkey, 2009)

• Threatened Belongingness (Baumeister, 2002)

• Stereotype Threat/ Identity threat (Steele &

Aronson, 1995)

The Fragility of Intelligence

Some social factors:

Apprehension arising from the awareness of a

negative stereotype or personal reputation in a

situation where the stereotype or identity is

relevant, and thus confirmable

– everyone experiences this in some form

Stereotype/Identity Threat

• Jewish person in a money context

• African American Taking an IQ test

• Woman called upon in math class

• George W. Bush and public speaking

Examples of Identity Threat

―They misunderestimated me‖--G.W. Bush, Nov 6, 2000

Average estimate = 1080 Bush‘s Actual Score = 1330

Estimate Bush‘s SAT Score

Stereotype ThreatAnecdotal Evidence

―When I talk in class, I feel as though I‘m totally on

stage, like everyone‘s thinking, ‗oh what‘s the Black

girl going to say?‘ But I don‘t speak up in class much

anymore, so I guess it‘s not a big deal.‖

—Stanford Undergraduate


―Group work was a nightmare. I could tell that no one

thought my ideas were any good because I‘m Puerto

Rican.‖—NYU Undergraduate


―Everyone expects me to be good at math because I‘m

Asian, so I feel extra stupid because I‘m not so good at

math.‖—NYU Undergrad

Steele & Aronson (1995). Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology.

• Method: Reducing Evaluative Scrutiny

• Measure: Blacks‘ and Whites‘ Verbal GRE

Performance

Laboratory Experiment on Stereotype Threat

Verbal Test Performance

black s

w hites

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

"Measuring Your Ability" "Not Measuring Your Ability"

# o

f it

em

s s

olv

ed


black s

black s

w hitesw hites

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

"Measuring Your Ability" "Not Measuring Your Ability"

# o

f it

em

s s

olv

ed


Corrected for SAT

black s

black sw hites w hites

1

2

3

4

5

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7

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10

STEREOTYPE THREAT NO STEREOTYPE THREAT

# o

f it

em

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ed

Steele & Aronson (1995)

Method: Inducing the Relevance of Race

Measure: Blacks‘ and Whites‘ Verbal GRE

Performance

Laboratory Experiment on Stereotype Threat


black s

black sw hites w hites

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Asked to Indicate Race Not Asked to Indicate Race

# o

f it

em

s s

olv

ed

Math Test Performance

Of College Men and Women(Spencer, Steele & Quinn, 1999)

Additional Studies Finding Performance Effects

• Women Taking Math Tests

• Latinos taking verbal tests

• Elderly taking short-term memory tests

• Low SES Students taking verbal tests

• Blacks and Miniature Golf

• Women taking tests of Political Knowledge, Driving, Chess

• White males taking tests of social sensitivity

• Princeton Students from Non-preppy Backgrounds on math tests

• White Males Taking Math Tests

When White Men Can‘t Do MathAronson, et al., (1999). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Test of Your Math Ability Test of Your Math AbilityRelative to Asians

Item

s S

olv

ed

When White Men Can‘t Do MathAronson, et al., (1999). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

1

2

3

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5

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7

8

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Test of Your Math Ability Test of Your Math Ability Relative

to Asians

Item

s S

olv

ed

d = .93

Conclusions From 350 Published Studies

• Impairment occurs both on IQ tests and in terms of GPA

• Impairment on tests results from anxiety, arousal, reduced

working memory capacity, impaired self-regulation; not

typically a function of reduced effort

• fMRI studies show that women use different regions of the

brain when doing math under ST; higher blood pressure

• Can affect elite or non-elite students

• Can arise as a function of simply mixing students

• ST is much more likely to affect African Americans than

immigrant black students; effects are smaller at HCBU‘s

Stereotype Threat in the

―Real World‖

Educational Testing Service

Field Study:

The AP Calculus Test

Asking About Gender or After Before

Taking AP

ETS Field Study:Asking Gender Before Taking AP Calculus

Test Hurts Girls

(Stricker, 2002). Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

Educational Testing Service Study:Asking Gender Before AP Calculus Test

Hurts Girls, Helps Boys

Danaher and Crandall (2008)

Reanalysis of ETS Study

“Women benefited substantially on the

calculus test when demographics were

asked after testing rather than before. This

simple, small, and inexpensive change

could increase U.S. women receiving AP

Calculus AB credit by more than 4,700

every year.”

California Exit Study Experiment:

Comparing performance on High

and Low Stakes Tests

High Stakes Tests Hurt Minorities

Effects of High Stakes on High School

Graduation

Field Experiment: Women in the

Science Pipeline

Highest Level Calculus Students

Highest Level College Calculus Students

Good, Aronson, & Harder (in press) Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

Field Study: Women in the Science Pipeline

Advanced Level Women Outperform Advanced Men

in Calculus When Threat Reduced

Good, Aronson, & Harder (2008) Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

Field Study: Women in the Science Pipeline

End of Part One

Part Two:Reducing Stereotype Threat

Improving Performance

Reducing Stereotype Threat

Mindset Matters

Identity Salience

• Largest sex differences: Spatial Ability

• May account for most of the math test score gap

• Testosterone?

Biological Differences in Spatial Ability

Vandenberg Mental Rotation

Task

A meta-analysis containing 286 data sets and 100,000

subjects found a highly significant male advantage for mental

rotation; this pattern remains stable across age and has not

decreased in recent years.

Identity Salience Influences Women‘s Mental

Rotation Performance

5

10

15

20

25

GENDER ELITE COLLEGE

STUDENT

CONTROL

VM

R S

CO

RE

WOMEN

MEN

McGlone & Aronson (2006). Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

Identity Salience Influences Mental Rotation

Performance

5

10

15

20

25

GENDER ELITE COLLEGE

STUDENT

CONTROL

VM

R

SC

OR

E

WOMEN

MEN

• Asian women perform better on a math test if you remind them of

their Asian identity, worse if you remind them of their gender

• Stanford undergraduates consume less Alcohol if you suggest to

them that nerdy Stanford Grad students drink a lot

• Girls given the opportunity claim they are ―trailblazers‖ expressed

twice as much interest in science and math courses

• Crellin Elementary School: went from lowest to highest scores

• Being prompted to list ways that women and men are simlilar

reduces math gap by lifting women‘s math scores

Examples of Identity Effects

The Growth Mindset

Conceptions of the nature of

Intelligence

“The mind is much more like a muscle than we’ve ever realized… it needs to get cognitive exercise. It’s not some piece of clay on which you put an indelible mark.”

James Flynn, intelligence expert, 2007

Question:

What if you were led to believe ability is

malleable? Would it reduce effects of

stereotype threat?

Method: Framing test as a measure of a fixed or a

malleable ability

Measure: Blacks‘ and Whites‘ Test Performance

ExperimentAronson, McGlone & Doyle (2010)

Conceptions of Ability and Test

Performance

1

2

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5

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9

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11

Non-improvableAbility

Like SAT Verbal Improvable Skill

# o

f it

em

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olv

ed

Conceptions of Ability and Test

Performance

1

2

3

4

5

6

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8

9

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"Non-improvable

Ability"

"Like SATVerbal"(control)

"ImprovableSkill"

# o

f it

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olv

ed

African Americans Whites

Reducing the effects of Stereotype Threat In the

real world: Shaping implicit theories

Question: Can getting people to believe in expandable intelligence reduce effects of stereotype threat on GPA?

• Method: Attitude change

• Measure: End of year GPA

Year End Follow-Up:

GPA

Aronson, Fried & Good (2002). Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Awareness of Stereotype Threat

Question:

Can understanding Stereotype threat reduce its

effects?

Method: Forewarning about ST or Test Anxiety

Measure: Blacks‘ Test Performance a week later

Reducing Stereotype Threat: The

role of awareness

Aronson & Williams (under review).

African American‘s GRE Performance

8

16

Forewarning-ST Forewarning-TestAnxiety

Control

SC

OR

E

Stereotype threat

No stereotype threat

Conclusion

Human intelligence, motivation, and academic

self-concept are more fragile and malleable than

traditionally thought. People‘s performance and

motivation can rise and fall depending on the

situations and relationships they are in, and the

mindsets they adopt. Understanding this can help

us nurture both the expression—and

development—of intelligence.

What do we have in common?

IQ ≅ 126

"By nature emplanted, for nurture to

enlarge"

Richard Mulcaster, 1581First Headmaster of Merchant Taylors' School in London

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