Stereotype performance boosts: The impact of self-relevance and the manner of stereotype activation.

Abstract

The activation of positive stereotypes has been shown to produce academic performance boosts. Evidence regarding the role of self-relevance in producing such effects has been mixed. The authors propose that the subtlety of stereotype activation plays a key role in creating performance boosts among targets and nontargets of stereotypes. Study 1 found that subtle stereotype activation boosted performance in targets, but blatant activation did not. Study 2 was conducted on both targets and nontargets using different methods of stereotype activation. Again, targets showed performance boosts when stereotypes were subtly activated but not when they were blatantly activated. Nontargets, however, showed boosts in performance only when stereotypes were blatantly activated. The role of self-relevance in mediating sensitivity to stimuli is discussed.

An integrated process model of stereotype threat effects on performance.

“…Many stereotype threat studies report evidence of a small but noticeable increase in performance among the positively stereotyped group in the same condition that reduces the performance of those who are negatively stereotyped (Shih, Ambady, Richeson, Fujita, & Gray, 2002;Shih et al, 1999). Although it has seldom been significant in any given study, Walton and Cohen (2003) confirmed in a meta-analysis that this stereotype lift effect is reliable.…”

Where are the Gender Differences? Male Priming Boosts Spatial Skills in Women

“…Some studies testing students in the USA indicate that performance can also be shifted as an effect of priming (Shih et al 1999). Asian-American women primed with their Asian identity performed better on a math test, while participants primed with their female identity showed a decrease in performance, compared with women in a control group (Shih et al 2002).…”

Stereotype boost and stereotype threat effects: The moderating role of ethnic identification.

“…In general, however, stereotype threat is believed to result from increased concerns about being evaluated in terms of a negative group stereotype (Steele, 1997;Steele et al, 2002), whereas stereotype boost is believed to result from an ideomotor process in which the mere thought of an action, even if only at a nonconscious level, increases the tendency to engage in that action (Dijksterhuis, Bargh, & Zanna, 2001;Wheeler & Petty, 2001). Regardless of the underlying mechanisms, research has clearly demonstrated that the stereotype boost and stereotype threat effects occur when an environmental cue makes a group identity or the associated group stereotypes personally salient, ostensibly leading to the cognitive activation of that identity and the associated stereotypes (e.g., Shih et al, 2002;Steele & Aronson, 1995). Thus, factors that increase the tendency that a stereotyped identity will become personally salient and cognitively activated should increase susceptibility to these effects.…”