Stereotype Threat Research Articles

Health practitioner beliefs regarding the impact of age-based stereotype threat on performance in the cognitive assessment of older adults

Objectives Health practitioners’ understanding of the impact of age-based stereotype threat (ABST) on the cognitive test performance of older adults is not well understood. This study aimed to investigate health practitioners’ ability to recognize the influence of ABST in the cognitive assessment of older adults and their perceptions of its impact in practice. Methods One-hundred and twenty-nine health practitioners (86% female; M age = 39.75, SD = 11.50) with experience in conducting cognitive assessments with older adults (mainly psychologists and occupational therapists) completed an online survey assessing demographic and practice characteristics, aging beliefs, a hypothetical cognitive assessment scenario, and perceived impact of ABST on practice. Results Overall, health practitioners rated ABST factors in the assessment scenario as less detrimental to cognitive performance than internal and external factors. In a hierarchical regression model, lower recognition of ABST and negative aging beliefs significantly accounted for lower perceived impact of ABST on older adults’ cognitive test performance in practice (R 2 = .37, p < .001). Conclusion Health practitioners may not recognize the influence of ABST on assessment findings, especially if they hold negative aging beliefs. The findings highlight the need to improve health practitioners’ knowledge of ABST to increase the validity of cognitive testing in older adults.

Diversity attitudes and sensitivity of employees and leaders in the German STEM-sector.

The increasing diversity of cultural backgrounds, migration status and age is shaping modern working life. Previous research demonstrated that the attitudes and competences of team members and leaders toward diversity play a crucial role in utilizing the potential of heterogeneous teams and preventing detrimental behavior and discrimination. But even though leaders appear to be key figures in the process of diversity management, their perception of diversity as well as related challenges and chances are poorly investigated. The current paper aims to contribute to the understanding of leaders’ perspective on and role in diversity management building on a comparative analysis of two explorative qualitative studies with 16 employees and 22 leaders. The overall research questions are how employees and leaders perceive diversity of culture and age from their specific point of view, which experiences are likely to contribute to their opinion on and perception of diversity and in how far do employees and leaders differ in these aspects. Participants come from the German sector of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), which is the most internationalized and least psychologically investigated sector in Germany. The results show that employees are aware of the topic of diversity in general but have poor competences in dealing with diversity in their daily work life. This seems to be associated with a lack of experience with intercultural interaction and a lack of support from the respective organizations/leaders. We further found that individuals with a migration background do not show any signs of stereotype threat rather than expressing a feeling of being isolated from employees without a migration background. By comparing perspectives of leaders and employees, the current study contributes to the understanding of the processes underlying the experiences of inequalities of migrants and experiences of intercultural miscommunication and faultlines of people without migration background. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Are Speeded Tests Unfair? Modeling the Impact of Time Limits on the Gender Gap in Mathematics.

When cognitive and educational tests are administered under time limits, tests may become speeded and this may affect the reliability and validity of the resulting test scores. Prior research has shown that time limits may create or enlarge gender gaps in cognitive and academic testing. On average, women complete fewer items than men when a test is administered with a strict time limit, whereas gender gaps are frequently reduced when time limits are relaxed. In this study, we propose that gender differences in test strategy might inflate gender gaps favoring men, and relate test strategy to stereotype threat effects under which women underperform due to the pressure of negative stereotypes about their performance. First, we applied a Bayesian two-dimensional item response theory (IRT) model to data obtained from two registered reports that investigated stereotype threat in mathematics, and estimated the latent correlation between underlying test strategy (here, completion factor, a proxy for working speed) and mathematics ability. Second, we tested the gender gap and assessed potential effects of stereotype threat on female test performance. We found a positive correlation between the completion factor and mathematics ability, such that more able participants dropped out later in the test. We did not observe a stereotype threat effect but found larger gender differences on the latent completion factor than on latent mathematical ability, suggesting that test strategies affect the gender gap in timed mathematics performance. We argue that if the effect of time limits on tests is not taken into account, this may lead to test unfairness and biased group comparisons, and urge researchers to consider these effects in either their analyses or study planning.

Impact assessment of stereotype threat on mobile depression screening using Bayesian estimation

Mental illness screening instruments are increasingly being administered through online patient portals, making it vital to understand how the design of digital screening technologies could alter screening scores. Given the strong cross-cultural belief in the gender depression disparity, digital screening technologies are at particular risk of triggering stereotype threat, the phenomenon where a reminder of a stereotype impacts task performance. To assess this risk, we investigate if a reminder about the gender depression disparity influences the scores of digitally administered mental screening instruments. In a comprehensive study, we collect data from 440 participants with a mobile application that reminds half of the participants of the gender depression disparity prior to administering depression and anxiety screening instruments. Our statistical analysis evaluates differences in screening scores with t-tests, and determines credible values for difference of means, of standard deviations, and effect size using Bayesian estimation. While the gender depression disparity reminder had no statistically significant impact on men, it did alter the depression screening scores of women and nonbinary participants. Further, prior depression treatment increased the impact of stereotype threat on women. Our research demonstrates that digital screening technologies are subject to stereotype threat and should thus be designed to avoid biasing mental illness screening scores.

Disproving Stereotypes: A Daily Examination of Nonnative Speakers’ Stereotype Threat Experience

An estimated 67.3 million people are nonnative English speakers in the US. Research has shown that nonnative English speakers are often perceived to be less competent in communication, less intelligent, and less reliable in English-speaking environments, regardless of their actual capability. Given that English is a common tool for business communication, nonnative English speaker identity is particularly salient in the workplace. As a result, nonnative English speakers have been shown to be less likely to be hired or promoted to managerial positions and more likely to fail to receive funding for their business due to the stigma. Notably, even without actual discrimination, they tend to be afraid of stigmatization and unfair judgements based on their nonnative English speaker identity. Using a theoretical lens of stereotype threat, this paper examined how nonnative English speakers experience the stigma at work and how it affects their daily life. To this end, an experience sampling study of 86 full-time working nonnative English speakers in the US across 10 consecutive workdays was conducted. The results suggest that nonnative English speakers’ daily experience of stereotype threat likely reduces their well-being, but not job performance. The findings help a better understanding of how stereotype threat plays a role in the workplace. Keywords: Nonnative speaker stigma, stereotype threat; resource depletion, experience sampling methods

Age Diversity as a Risk Factor for Psychological Safety in Teams of Older Employees

Age diversity has become a more and more pressing issue in modern working teams. Yet the effects of age diversity are not fully understood. While psychological safety is both dependent on interpersonal relationships and an important antecedent of team performance, it has never been studied as a potential mediator of the link between age diversity and team performance. In this study, we aim to close this gap in the literature and introduce team age as a moderator of this relationship as we argue that perceptions of age diversity might shift between different age cohorts due to stereotype threat. We tested our assumptions using a sample of 1441 white-collar workers, nested in 109 working teams. Using aggregated team-level data, we tested a moderated mediation model with age diversity as a predictor, psychological safety as a mediator, team age as moderator, and team performance as an outcome. We found a negative relationship between age diversity and psychological safety for teams of older employees. This moderation translated into a negative moderated mediation effect of age diversity on team performance via the mediator psychological safety for older teams. In conclusion, age diversity seems to be a significant risk factor for psychological safety and subsequently team performance in teams of older employees but not in teams of younger employees. Our study complements the existing literature integrating psychological safety literature, age diversity literature, and stereotype threat literature by demonstrating, that age diversity is a risk factor for psychological safety and subsequently team performance in teams of older employees.

Creating a Better World for Older and Younger Workers in the Multigenerational Workforce

The current symposium focuses on the challenges associated with accomodating and supporting an increasingly multigenerational workforce. By addressing issues related to intersectionality, stereotype threat, job crafting, ascribed status and the role of age in social comparison processes, and age-related dimensions driving discrimination, our symposium provides novel insights into understanding the current age-diverse workforce and new avenues for enhancing its career development. Creating a Better World for Older and Younger Workers in the Multigenerational Workforce Presenter: Noemi Nagy; U. of South Florida Presenter: Irina Gioaba; NYU Stern School of Business

Does gender stereotype threat affects the levels of aggressiveness, learning and flow in gamified learning environments?: An experimental study.

Studies in the literature reported several positive benefits provided by the use of technology in online education, especially in the gamified tutoring system. However, despite the benefits of intelligent tutoring systems, recent studies indicate the presence of a gender gap not considered in the construction of the attributes present in the gamified tutoring system. To investigate this impact by observing users’ behavioral changes in gamified online educational environments, the present study aims to investigate the effects of the stereotype threats using a quantitative experiment with a Factorial Design in three gamified environments (stereotypical male version, stereotypical female version and control environment). Was conducted an experiment with 150 individuals (high school and undergraduate students) without considering age, ethnicity, or social class. The results show that the participants allocated to the male learning environment present an increase in aggressiveness level. Furthermore, the results also show the stereotypical male and female learning environments increased the participants’ performance level. Another finding was that the threatening condition provided a significant increase in the participants’ flow level among males subjected to a threatening condition, which did not manifest in the case of females. In addition, this study also observed the effect of the stereotype threat on men and women in the threatening condition by division in the 34-year age group, resulting in a significant increase in the level of flow among men. This study showed previous results show that the gamified environment influences psychological variables as aggressiveness, intellectual performance, and flow level, they raise questions about the direction of these changes and the impact they may have on users’ usability and performance in these systems.

The Effect of Community Support for Far-Right Political Parties on Immigrant Employee’s Absenteeism

Both international migration and political polarization have seen widespread increases over the last decade. As immigration increases, community support for far-right political parties (and their xenophobic platforms) grows, begging the question of how a community’s support for far-right political parties affects immigrant workers who serve these communities. Integrating macro-level research from economics and political science with stereotype threat theory at the individual-level, we argue that far-right political support in the community makes negative immigrant-related stereotypes salient, affecting immigrant workers’ short-term absenteeism behavior. However, we predict that similarity to their team leader or coworkers (in terms of immigrant status) is associated with decreased short-term absenteeism because it lowers immigrant workers’ perceptions of stereotype threat. Using both field and experimental designs, we demonstrate the interplay between subordinate’s immigrant status, their similarity to fellow team members, and the political context in which they work.

Warming Up the Cold Call

Student populations in higher education are more diverse than ever before. Studies of classroom engagement have repeatedly shown that instructors act on implicit biases and that classroom participation is rarely equitable. What can instructors do to support diverse students, specifically with regard to managing classroom engagement and facilitating equitable participation? The practice of cold-calling—calling on a student who has not volunteered to contribute a response—has previously been suggested to support a number of desirable classroom outcomes. However, cold-calling is increasingly recognized to be a potential source of significant student anxiety, particularly for students already experiencing heightened stress due to stereotype threat or other barriers to learning. As such, the solicitation of random and immediate feedback may actually exacerbate inequities rather than ameliorate them as intended. Here, we introduce a novel classroom participation approach that we call the warm call. This engagement method provides students with an advance warning, and the opportunity to opt out of sharing in front of the class. We describe two different approaches—the “in-class warm call” and the “before-class warm call”—which can be utilized by instructors in any level or size of class to support equitable student participation while also respecting student autonomy.

Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis

We thought the opening chapters of Emily Willingham’s Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis were superb. Willingham demonstrates how to critique a scientific paper for underlying bias: What questions are being asked, and in what ways do a study’s design sway the likelihood of reaching different conclusions? These critical thinking skills are invaluable for students first learning to read research literature. Sometimes data are more ambiguous than students would expect from the way science is covered in the popular press; sometimes authors’ conclusions aren’t really supported by the data. (Willingham draws on a traditional boogeyman—low-sample-size evolutionary psychology studies—for examples of the latter.)Then Willingham provides a lucid portrait of evolution in action. Readers are likely to gain a great understanding of convergent and divergent evolution, as well as the sorts of environments that are most likely to give rise to each.These are essential concepts for biology students to master. The opening chapters would make for an excellent teaching tool. For older readers students, mind you. Kirstin most certainly won’t recommend Phallacy to her high schoolers, because—as you’d predict from a book titled Phallacy that sports a delightfully suggestive pink squid on its cover—Willingham works through all this material from the attention-grabbing standpoint of sexual behavior, discussing in detail the genitalia and reproductive habits of both human and nonhuman animals. All of it seems like a great way to keep the attention of learners who are ready for the material, but not everyone will be.The latter chapters are also interesting, but in a different way: Willingham presents a whole smorgasbord of fun animal facts. On every page, readers will encounter unexpected trivia: our world is a fascinating place, and evolution has produced an incredible array of different body morphs and behaviors.But, unlike in the opening chapters, there’s not a decisive intellectual framework scaffolding all these facts together. The central argument is that we shouldn’t base our ethical decisions on the behaviors of other animals (a fallacy Willingham terms “the Lobster Trap”), because each species has confronted very different evolutionary pressures. Even if physical bulk and aggression has led to greater mate access among lobsters—or even if this held true among our own ancestors—that doesn’t have much bearing on the ways that we humans ought to structure our interpersonal relationships today. Quite true, but readers should be aware that some hundred pages of trivia will be provided in support of this message. It’s excellent fodder for conversation, but not so necessary from an educational standpoint.All of this is to say the first half of Phallacy seems great for more mature learners, and the second half seems great for people who like to interject remarks like “Did you know that the orange mud crab copulates for six hours after days of devoted courtship?” into their dinner party conversations.There’s some risqué wordplay here, but nothing likely to shock someone who has chosen to read a book entirely about penis evolution. More alarming might be the puns. Kirstin is a card-carrying member of team “Most Puns Are Good Puns,” but others (e.g., Frank) might find themselves groaning. It’s also worth noting that the author has a pronounced political bent that’s readily apparent from the very beginning of the book. We don’t think anyone is likely to distrust an author for invoking Jeffrey Epstein as a villain, but there are also brief negative references to Brett Kavanaugh and Donald Trump that, unfortunately, might make some readers less likely to absorb Willingham’s excellent analyses. Kirstin has definitely seen students shut down when they feel stereotype threat, including over their political beliefs.All in all, we had great fun reading Phallacy—just don’t let yourself be tricked by the book’s subtitle (Life Lessons from the Animal Penis), since the main message here is that all the odd quirks of evolution can’t tell us how to live our lives.

Explaining the gender gap in negotiation performance: Social network ties outweigh internal barriers

AbstractGender disparities in negotiation outcomes contribute to inequality in the workplace and beyond. Explanations of gender gaps in negotiation often focus on internal barriers women face as a consequence of contending with stigma in the workplace and other historically male‐dominated environments, such as stereotype threat and apprehension about negotiating. However, stigma is also associated with relational consequences that may influence success in negotiations. This research compared internal and relational mechanisms for gender disparities in negotiation performance. Seventy‐seven MBA executives reported their apprehension about negotiating, stereotype threat in negotiations, mindset about negotiation‐related stress, and class social networks. Participants were then randomly paired to complete a series of one‐on‐one negotiations based on real‐world scenarios. Overall, men outperformed women in negotiations. Significant gender differences emerged in stereotype threat, stress mindset, and social network centrality. However, only network centrality—specifically number and strength of ties—significantly mediated the relationship between gender and negotiation performance. Position in informal social networks may play an important role in negotiation outcomes, particularly in a shared social environment like the workplace. Although efforts to explain the gender gap in negotiation performance often center internal psychological mechanisms, this research suggests that relational explanations, such as disparities in social networks, merit further attention. Limitations and recommendations for future research and policy are discussed.

Shattering Glass Ceilings: Three Black Women Surgeons Ascend to Chairs of Departments of Surgery.

Shattering Glass Ceilings: Three Black Women Surgeons Ascend to Chairs of Departments of Surgery.

Impact of stereotype threat on brain activity during memory tasks in older adults

We report the first neuroimaging experiment to investigate the impact of explicitly activating aging stereotypes (i.e., stereotype threat) on brain activity during cognitive tasks. Cognitively normal older adults read about aging stereotypes or a control passage prior to taking episodic memory, working memory, and a non-demanding control task during fMRI. At the group level, stereotype activation did not impact cognitive performance or measures sensitive to stress and anxiety (physiological or self-report), but like prior work, highly educated and retired adults exhibited greater stereotype effects on episodic memory. At the neural level, stereotype activation did not impact brain activity in executive control or emotional regulation regions previously linked to stereotype threat effects in younger adults, suggesting that stereotype threat operates differently in older adults. Instead, on each task, the stereotype group showed more brain activity than the control group in parietal midline regions (e.g., precuneus, posterior cingulate). Although activity in these regions can arise from many processes, they have previously been associated with self-referential thinking and error-prevention focus, and in our study, brain activity in these regions was associated with slower responses and lower false alarm errors on the episodic memory task. Collectively, these findings are more consistent with the regulatory fit hypothesis than an executive control interference hypothesis of stereotype threat effects in older adults, whereby older adults adopt an error-prevention mindset in response to explicit stereotype threat.

Exploring the pre-instruction gender gap in physics.

There is a substantial body of work in physics education looking at gender disparities in physics. Recent work has linked gender disparities in college physics course performance to disparities in high school physics preparation, but to our knowledge, the origin of the disparity in high school physics preparation is still underexplored. In a select sample, we found that women on average had lower force and motion conceptual evaluation (FMCE) pre-scores (the FMCE is a short conceptual assessment of Newton's laws), and FMCE pre-score entirely mediated the effects of high school preparation and social-psychological factors on exam performance. The gender gap in FMCE pre-scores could not be explained by differences in the number of physics courses taken in high school. Instead, we find that the gender gap in the FMCE is partially explained by female students' higher levels of general test anxiety. We hypothesize that the format of the FMCE, a timed assessment, triggers stereotype threat in female students despite being a low-stakes assessment. Therefore, instructors and researchers should take care in interpreting the results of such concept inventory scores and should re-think the way they assess understanding of physics concepts. Results of this work aligned with previous findings on gender disparity in timed exams call upon investigating gender equitable assessment formats for evaluating physics knowledge to replace timed assessments, either high or low stakes.

Can I dismiss the stereotype – as my teacher did? Influence of stereotype activation and an immigrant teacher on student learning

Lower vocabulary in German is repeatedly reported for students with Turkish migration background attending school in Germany. We investigated whether in students of Turkish descent (a) learning vocabulary is impaired when the teacher activates the negative stereotype that students with Turkish family language learn less well and (b) whether a Turkish-origin teacher, as an ingroup expert model, can mitigate negative effects of the activation of the stereotype. In an experimental study, Turkish- and German-origin students (N = 182) living in Germany worked individually on a tablet on a vocabulary learning task instructed by a teacher in a video tutorial who introduced herself with either a Turkish or German name. Before the task, the teacher either mentioned that students in general (no stereotype activation) or students who speak Turkish in their families (stereotype activation) often have difficulties acquiring new vocabulary. A multiple-group regression analysis showed that Turkish-origin students learned significantly more under stereotype activation with the Turkish-origin teacher than in all other conditions. Results suggest that students are particularly motivated to learn when the teacher represents their ingroup targeted by negative stereotypes and openly addresses potential difficulties students of the stigmatized ingroup may encounter. We discuss the findings in light of the literature on stereotype threat and on the role of ingroup expert models.

Samantha Green vs. Peter Stevens: Reversed Gender Stereotype Threat in Online Chess

Previous studies have shown that exposure to gender stereotypes has a detrimental impact on women’s performance. In chess, it has been demonstrated that the performance level of women is negatively influenced when they are exposed to negative stereotypes about their ability to play chess. However, it is still largely unclear whether the influence of a negative stereotype of women’s ability to play chess is only limited to their level of performance, or whether it could also affect their opponent’s performance. The present study investigated this reversed stereotype threat in online chess playing an unrated game. It was expected that a chess player’s performance would be influenced by the gender of their opponent. However, the participants’ online opponent was neither a female nor male chess player, but rather, unknown to the participants, it was a computer program that either played with a male or female nickname. The results showed that participants who played against a female nickname played less well, lost more games, and made more mistakes and blunders than participants who played against a male nickname. In sum, findings indicate that, in chess, the influence of a gender stereotype is not limited to the group the stereotype is targeted at, but also reduces the performance of the opponent’s level of play, leading to a reversed stereotype threat.

How stereotype threat affects the brain dynamics of creative thinking in female students

When people are placed in a situation where they are at risk of substantiating a negative stereotype about their social group (a scenario termed stereotype threat), the extra pressure to avoid this outcome can undermine their performance. Substantial and consistent gender disparities in STEM fields leave women vulnerable to stereotype threat, including the stereotype that women are not as good at generating creative and innovative ideas as men. We tested whether female students’ creative thinking is affected by a stereotype threat by measuring power in the alpha frequency band (8–12Hz oscillations) that has been associated with better creative thinking outcomes. Counter to expectations that a stereotype threat would reduce alpha power associated with creative thinking, analyses showed increased alpha power following the introduction of the stereotype threat. This outcome suggests that women may have attempted to increase their internal attention during the task in order to disprove the stereotype. Behaviorally, this effort did not lead to changes in creative performance, suggesting that the stereotype threat decoupled alpha power from creative thinking outcomes. These results support a growing school of thought in the neuroscience of creativity literature that the alpha power often seen in conjunction with creative behavior is not necessarily related to the creativity processes themselves, but rather might be part of a larger network modulating the distribution of attentional resources more broadly.

‘Baby brain’ in pregnancy: A review of social psychological explanations and future research directions

AbstractThe colloquial concept of ‘baby brain’ suggests that throughout pregnancy and into the immediate postpartum period, women have reduced cognitive abilities and are more distracted, forgetful, and incompetent. To date, a plethora of cognitive and neuropsychological research testing the cognitive functioning of pregnant women relative to other groups has yielded inconsistent and unclear findings. However, there is a notable lack of literature that adopts a social psychological perspective, critically assessing the contribution of social context to the ‘baby brain’ phenomenon. In this paper, we review the current ‘baby brain’ literature and outline two potential social perspectives that provide insights into this research area: stereotype threat theory and objectification theory. We argue that inconsistencies in the ‘baby brain’ cognitive literature may be impacted by under‐explored social phenomena, which may result from activation of stereotypes or objectifying cues throughout pregnancy and into early new motherhood. We end with suggestions for future social and personality psychological research directions in the area of ‘baby brain’.

Workforce solutions to address health disparities.

This review focuses on physician workforce racial & ethnic diversity as a solution to improve perioperative and peripartum health equity. Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic physicians remain underrepresented in medicine (URiM) and anesthesiology, and efforts to expand this workforce have had limited impact. Psychological forces, including implicit bias, aversive racism, outgroup bias, racial attention bias, stereotype threat, and imposter syndrome all act to reinforce structural racism and decrease opportunity for advancement. Evidence based solutions are emerging, but require institutional commitment and widespread engagement of the entire medical community. Academic medicine has recognized the need to diversify the physician workforce for more than 50 years, and yet Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic physicians remain URiM. Foundational assumptions and power structures in medicine limit entry, advancement, and retention of URiM physicians. Solutions require leadership and institutional commitment to change the policies, procedures, priorities, and culture of academic medicine.