Role Of Stereotype Threat Research Articles

Role of Stereotype Threat, Leadership Aspiration and Work from Home in Gender Gap in Leadership: A Study of the Higher Education Institutions of Pakistan

This study examines the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions in Pakistani higher education institutions (HEIs), where women hold only 4.5% of leadership positions. Despite comprising nearly half of the population and labor force, women tend to pursue teaching careers due to domestic and caregiving responsibilities. Male faculty members predominantly occupy leadership positions in HEIs, which creates stereotype threats and obstacles for female faculty members. The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation by increasing domestic and family responsibilities for women. The study used a quantitative, cross-sectional design to collect data from 329 Ph.D. female faculty members working in Pakistani HEIs. The findings offer insights into individual and organisational factors impacting the gender gap in leadership positions and suggest potential remedies to increase the number of women in leadership positions in Pakistani HEIs.

The Role of Stereotype Threat, Anxiety, and Emotional Intelligence in Women’s Opportunity Evaluation

Masculine stereotypes of entrepreneurship represent a threat to women. We aim to understand how such stereotype threat affects women’s opportunity evaluation through anxiety. We test our idea using a two-randomized-experiment strategy and achieve external validity using a survey of female entrepreneurs. We find that situational anxiety, as an emotional mechanism, explains why stereotype threat negatively influences opportunity evaluation among women. We further unveil emotional intelligence as a boundary condition enabling women to cope with stereotype threat during opportunity evaluation. Our studies provide new insights into an emotive view of stereotype threat in the context of women’s entrepreneurship.

Gender differences in financial literacy: The role of stereotype threat

Understanding why women display less financial literacy than men is crucial for developing policies to reduce gender inequalities and improve women's financial behavior. In a series of studies, we investigate whether the observed gender gap in financial literacy can be identified in nonnumerical contexts, if it can be related to confidence in financial matters, and if it can be attributed to stereotype threat, which posits that inbuilt prejudices about gender and finance undermine performance among women in tasks involving finance. We utilized data from the Swedish Standardized Scholastic Aptitude Test (n = 40,662) to investigate if there is a greater difference in reading comprehension between men and women when reading about topics related to finance. Furthermore, we conducted large-scale online data collection (n = 1989), including a survey on financial vocabulary and an experiment that manipulated the salience of the financial content across conditions when assessing financial literacy. The results show that the observed gender gap in financial literacy is robust also in a nonnumerical financial contexts and that it can not be attributed to a difference in (displayed) confidence. Finally, mediation analysis showed a significant indirect effect of gender on financial literacy through financial anxiety suggesting that a stereotype threat for women in the financial domain contributes to the observed gender gap.

The role of stereotype threat in ethnically minoritized students’ science motivation: A four-year longitudinal study of achievement and persistence in STEM

Grounded in expectancy-value and stereotype threat theories, this four-year longitudinal study examined associations between changes in stereotype threat and motivation (self-efficacy, task values, and perceived costs) among 425 undergraduates from racial/ethnic groups typically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Growth analyses indicated that students’ stereotype threat and perceived cost of studying science increased during college, whereas science self-efficacy, intrinsic value, and attainment value declined. Parallel growth analyses suggested that higher initial stereotype threat related to a faster decline in attainment value and faster increase in perceived costs throughout college. Higher initial levels and a steeper increase in stereotype threat related to lower STEM GPA. Higher initial levels and a slower decline in motivation variables related to higher STEM GPA and more completed STEM courses. These findings provide empirical evidence for the relations between stereotype threat and motivation among underrepresented minority students during a key developmental period.

Understanding Distress: An Examination of the Role of Stereotype Threat in Vigilance Tasks

Vigilance tasks are known to be stressful and highly practical tasks present in many workplace environments. Research has examined ways to alleviate this stress but has often failed to include individual difference characteristics that might increase stress. The current research examined potential gender differences in stress after completing a vigilance task. Participants completed a questionnaire pre- and post-task measuring worry, engagement, and distress (Matthews et al., 1999) for a vigilance task. Results showed that women reported more distress after the vigilance task when reminded of a negative stereotype about their gender. Results are discussed in terms of practical implications for research examining distress during vigilance tasks, as well as considerations for future research.

Higher Self-Esteem is Linked to Greater Stereotype Threat Among Academically Low-Achieving Students

As a stigmatized group, it seems likely that students whose level of academic achievement is low (LA students) would be vulnerable to stereotype threat. Therefore, we conducted a study on the role of stereotype threat and its possible interaction with self-esteem with 182 Chinese LA junior-high-school students. We developed a paradigm to induce stereotype threat about being LA and tested this in a pilot study, in which participants were asked to perform a mental rotation task while viewing stereotype threat information. In the main study, participants were randomly assigned to either the stereotype-threat condition or a control condition. Results showed that stereotype threat had a significant effect on LA students’ performance in that (a) participants in the stereotype-threat condition performed worse than those in the control condition did, and (b) the effect of stereotype threat was greater for high self-esteem individuals than for low self-esteem individuals. There are more aspects of the topic to be explored in future studies.

Stereotype Threat and Stereotype Reactance: The Effect of Direct and Indirect Stereotype Manipulations on Performance of Palestinian Citizens of Israel on Achievement Tests

The role of stereotype threat in performance of Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCI) on the psychometric exam (parallel to the SAT in the United States) was investigated. Two experiments, conducted in field settings, examined the role of stereotype threat in performance of PCI students in psychometric-like tests. Experiment 1, conducted on 135 Arab high school students, indicated that activation of the stereotype pertaining to the lower academic ability of PCI lowered participants’ performance relative to a control group. Experiment 2, which included 115 Arab students who participated in preparatory courses for the psychometric tests, showed that a direct manipulation of the stereotype led to stereotype reactance and increased performance, whereas an indirect manipulation activated the stereotype and resulted in lowered performance. These findings suggest that activating a stereotype threat or a stereotype reactance is contingent on the manipulation employed. Practical implications of these results are discussed.

Women are not less field independent than men-the role of stereotype threat.

Prior research has shown that females are less field independent (FI) than males. However, when gender identity is salient, performance on tests assessing constructs similar to FI may be hindered, because of stereotype threat. This study examined the impact of stereotype threat on gender differences in FI. We expected that (a) reporting one's own gender prior to FI testing and (b) having an opposite-gender experimenter would activate stereotype threat, and in turn result in lower performance on a test of FI among females. Overall, 170 participants were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions in a between-participants design varying the participant's gender, experimenter's gender and timing of the gender question (before vs. after test). Results showed that reporting one's gender before the FI test led to lower FI performance among females. Furthermore, females achieved higher FI when experimenters were females and gender questions were administered after the FI test.

Cytokine responses and math performance: The role of stereotype threat and anxiety reappraisals

This research independently manipulated two potential attenuators of stereotype threat – reappraisal of anxiety and test framing – to explore their independent and combined effects. Female participants took a difficult math exam that was described as gender-biased or gender-fair and were told that anxious arousal could positively impact performance or were given no information regarding arousal. Levels of the cytokine Interleukin-6 (IL-6), an immune marker of inflammation, were measured in oral mucosal transudate (OMT) both before and after the exam. Our findings indicate that directing reappraisal of physiological arousal attenuated increases in IL-6 across test framing conditions, and was especially effective under stereotype threat (i.e., gender-biased test condition). Reappraisal also mapped onto better test performance in the threat condition. Together, these findings provide insight into the unique and interactive effects of two situational interventions meant to reduce stereotype threat, indexed here by both physiological and performance-based correlates of threat.

Unhealthy Interactions: The Role of Stereotype Threat in Health Disparities

Stereotype threat is the unpleasant psychological experience of confronting negative stereotypes about race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or social status. Hundreds of published studies show how the experience of stereotype threat can impair intellectual functioning and interfere with test and school performance. Numerous published interventions derived from this research have improved the performance and motivation of individuals targeted by low-ability stereotypes. Stereotype threat theory and research provide a useful lens for understanding and reducing the negative health consequences of interracial interactions for African Americans and members of similarly stigmatized minority groups. Here we summarize the educational outcomes of stereotype threat and examine the implications of stereotype threat for health and health-related behaviors.