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56 CHAPTER 3- Students who are afraid or feel out of place in the mainstream
college culture - Students who have a hard time adjusting to the fast pace of col-
lege - Students who lack the financial resources to take additional
courses or participate in campus-based academic and social
activities in college
Stereotype Threat. A distressing research finding is that African
American and Latino students from elementary school through col-
lege tend to have lower test scores and grades, and tend to drop out
of school more often than White students (National Center for Edu-
cation Statistics, 1998). In addition, regardless of income level, they
score lower than White and Asian students on the Scholastic
Achievement Test (SAT). For years, educators have been concerned
with these statistics, especially when capable minority students fail to
perform as well as their White counterparts.
Professor Claude Steele (1999) and his colleague (Aronson, 2002)
believe they have identified a possible explanation for this dilemma.
They think the difference in academic performance has less to do with
preparation or ability and more to do with the threat of stereotypes
about the students’ ability to succeed. They coined the term stereo-
type threat to mean the fear of doing something that would inadver-
tently confirm a stereotype. The following is an explanation of this
phenomenon.
Stereotypes can influence an individual’s motivation and achieve-
ment by suggesting to the target of the stereotype that a negative label
could apply to one’s self or group. For example, the commonly held
stereotype that women are less capable in mathematics than men has
been shown to affect the performance of women on standardized
math tests. When females students were told beforehand of this neg-
ative stereotype, scores were significantly lower compared to a group
of women who were led to believe the tests did not reflect these stereo-
types (Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999). In another investigation (Levy,
1996), half of a group of older adults were reminded of the stereotype
regarding old age and memory loss while the other half were reminded
of the more positive stereotype that old people are wise. The older
adults performed worse on a test of short-term memory when they were
presented with the negative stereotype than when they were reminded
of the more positive stereotype. Why do you think the women and older
adults scored lower under the stereotype threat condition?
Now let’s review the research as to how stereotype threat may help
to explain the low achievement of certain minority group members.
There exists a stereotype that many African American and Latino stu-
dents may not have the academic ability to succeed in college. As a