Student groups were given a test. In each example, only one group was exposed
to various stereotypes. In an experiment, students lost an average of 6 points
just after being told “you will spend lots of time alone in your life.”
This was in comparison to other students being told something bad too, such
as “You are a klutz. You will probably spend some part of your life in
a body cast because of you are accident prone.”
Humans need to feel a sense of belonging.
Meta-Stereotypes: What you think someone thinks you think. Example:
Whites think: 60% of Whites think Blacks are less intelligent than Whites.
Blacks think: 90% of Whites think Blacks are less intelligent than Whites.
Stereotype Vulnerability can be invoked and has potentially powerful effect on performance. Examples:
1. Test with over 1000 students at Stanford. ½ were told to self identify
race before the activity began. Results: Blacks performed only half as well
as Whites.
When students were not asked to self identify race, no differences in performance
existed between Blacks and Whites.
2. Same test situation as above. ½ of the students were told this was a test, the other ½ were told it was an activity. Results showed that Blacks performed half as well than Whites under test conditions but showed no difference in performance when it was just an activity.
3. Same test situation as above. ½ of the students were told “We’re trying to figure out why Asians do so much better on this test.” And other half were not told anything. Results showed that Whites score significantly lower in the first half.
4. Test situation is Miniature golf. When students are told the test is for kinesthetic intelligence, Whites did better. When students are told the test is for athletic ability, Blacks did better.
5. Females do better on math tests with no males present. Their scores drop significantly with the addition of one male and continue to drop with each additional male.
6. Sixth grade is the age that stereotype vulnerability first starts to become detectable.
Conclusion: People perform less well when their stereotype vulnerability has
been invoked. Further findings show: This poorer performance is further exacerbated
by an expectation of prejudice and a belief that tests are biased. Add to this,
the more one cares when feeling vulnerable, the worse one is shown to perform.
How do we make intelligence Less Fragile in the classroom?
• Reduce the perception of evaluation
• Reduce prejudice
• Reduce social isolation
• Reduce mistrust
• Intelligence is an improvable ability. When this atmosphere is created
in the classroom, performance is much better for all