Digest #155: The Effect of Stereotype Threat on Cognition
By Cindy Nebel
Stereotype threat refers to the concern associated with possibly confirming a negative stereotype about oneself. This concern can create additional cognitive load, which can in turn impede learning and retrieval. In today’s digest, I’ve selected some resources that describe research into the effect of stereotype threat on cognition, application to one particular sub-group (older adults), and resources for solutions.
General Resources
1) Stereotype threat: How exposure to stereotypes can hinder your chlid’s performance by Dr. Gwen Dewar @ParentingSci
This is an excellent evidence-based summary of the research on stereotype threat, including limitations, that also includes evidence-based solutions. This resource is primarily designed for parents, but the solutions work well for educators alike.
2) Stereotype Threat: What are the Impacts? by Dr. Catherine Good @catherinegood
This brief blog post describes the cognitive mechanisms that are impacted by stereotype threat and how those in turn impact learning for students.
Image from Pixabay
3) Stereotype threat: The consequences of being negatively stereotyped by Dr. Toni Schmader
This is the lab website for Dr. Toni Schmader, which describes much of the research that has been supported by her lab at the University of British Columbia. The page discusses some of the nuances about stereotype threat that make an important addition to the above broad resources.
4) What Should We Know about Stereotype Threat? by The Reinert Center at Saint Louis University @Reintert_CTTL
On this page, there are two resource guides offered that summarize much of the research and offer evidence-based solutions to stereotype threat. This resource is aimed at higher education professionals, but could likely be used more broadly by educators. The two resources are on Understanding Stereotype Threat and Reducing Stereotype Threat in the Classroom.
Older Adults
5) Stereotypes can harm performance of older adults on cognitive and physical tasks by Dr. Sarah Barber
This is a summary of a review of research by Dr. Sarah Barber at Georgia State University demonstrating how stereotype threat can impair not only cognition, but motor tasks in older adults.
6) How Stereotypes Can Threaten Your Driving by The Association for Psychological Science @PsychScience
This describes a single research study that demonstrates the effect described above wherein older adults who are primed with negative stereotypes related to driving perform worse on a driving test.
Image from Pixabay
Interventions
7) Empirically Validated Strategies to Reduce Stereotype Threat by Stanford University
I am including here this handout from the Education Department at Stanford because it includes a lengthy list of possible strategies to combat stereotype threat with the citations to support each one as well as a list of review articles that can be retrieved for more information about the relative effectiveness of each strategy.
From time to time, we pick a theme and provide a curated list of links. If you have a theme suggestion, please don’t hesitate to contact us! Occasionally we publish a guest digest, and If you'd like to propose a guest digest click here. Our 5 most recent digests can be found here:
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Digest #152: Teaching How To Code