Stereotype validation: The effects of activating negative stereotypes after intellectual performance.

Abstract

With regard to intellectual performance, a large body of research has shown that stigmatized group members may perform more poorly when negative, self-relevant stereotypes become activated prior to a task. However, no research to date has identified the potential ramifications of stereotype activation that happens after-rather than before-a person has finished performing. Six studies examined how postperformance stereotype salience may increase the certainty individuals have in evaluations of their own performance. In the current research, the accessibility of gender or racial stereotypes was manipulated after participants completed either a difficult math test (Studies 1-5) or a test of child-care knowledge (Study 6). Consistent with predictions, stereotype activation was found to increase the certainty that women (Studies 1, 2, 4, and 5), African Americans (Study 3), and men (Study 6) had toward negative evaluations of their own test performance. These effects emerged when performance-related perceptions were stereotype consistent rather than inconsistent (Studies 1-6) and were found to be most pronounced among those who were highly identified with the stereotyped group (Study 5). Furthermore, greater certainty-triggered by negative stereotypes-predicted lowered domain-relevant beliefs (Studies 1, 2, 3, and 6) and differential exposure to domain-relevant stimuli (Studies 4 and 5).

Attitudes toward hiring people with disabilities: A meta‐cognitive approach to persuasion

“…Furthermore, the potential to generalize the results from this group to other stigmatized groups is one of the key advantages of relying of basic processes of change. So far, research on attitude change through self‐validation processes have examined prejudiced attitudes toward other stigmatized groups such as African Americans, and people with low socioeconomical status (e.g., Clark, Thiem, Barden, Stuart, & Evans, ; Clark et al, ).…”

Gender stereotypes and academic performance

“…Importantly, the women who were more certain of their poor performance experienced pernicious downstream consequences of this evaluation. Women who were highly certain of their poor performance reported lower beliefs in their math ability, less positive attitudes towards math, less interest in pursuing a math-related career, and lower expectations for performance on a future math test than women who were less certain of their poor performance (Clark et al, 2015). Furthermore, in a study involving poor performance on a science test, women's higher certainty in their poor test performance predicted worse performance on a subsequent science test (Clark & Thiem, under review).…”

“…As an example of this phenomenon, consider a study (from Clark et al, 2015) in which men and women took a challenging math test before reporting whether they perceived their performance on the test to be poor or strong. Next, participants either did or did not report their gender.…”

“…Although stereotype validation can occur for both men and women (see Clark et al, 2015), the present work focused on women within stereotypically male domains.…”

“…Because greater evaluative certainty has been shown to lead to reduced ability beliefs and more negative attitudes towards the stereotyped domain (Clark et al, 2015), I…”