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stereotype
Anxiety about performance can lower your actual results.
A 1995 study found that black students performed worse on tests when reminded of negative stereotypes about their intelligence.
Stereotype threat occurs when the fear of confirming a negative label consumes the cognitive resources needed for the task itself. The individual is not limited by their actual ability, but by the overwhelming pressure of the social stigma. The distraction of the stereotype effectively narrows the mind's focus.
The fear of failing can become the cause of failure.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Steele and Aronson, 1995, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- What the check found
- The claim accurately reflects the primary finding of the widely cited 1995 Steele and Aronson study, though modern literature emphasizes that the effect is more nuanced and variable than often portrayed.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.