Aronson, Jannone, McGlone, & Johnson-Campbell, In Press
In this experiment, high achieving White and
African-American undergraduates were asked to think
about a prominent politician from the 2008 presidential
campaign before completing a difficult verbal
exam that had been described as diagnostic of ability.
Immediately prior to taking the exam, participants were
given several pictures of John McCain, Barack Obama, or
no photographs (control) along with identical quotes
attributed to each individual or to "an American
politician" (control). Participants in these conditions
were then asked to list two benefits
of a McCain presidency, two benefits of an Obama
presidency, or, in the control condition, the benefits
of being politically informed. A second control
condition involved participants completing the exam
without being provided any of this information. Results
showed that Whites performed significantly better than
African-American students across all conditions. The
authors suggest that the failure of focusing attention
on Barack Obama in eliminating racial differences in
test performance raise questions about his effectiveness
as a role model. Given the timing of this experiment
(mid-June to mid-July, 2008), it is quite plausible that
data were collected at a time when Obama's
accomplishments were not particularly clear or salient.
Consistent with the findings of
Marx, Ko, &
Friedman (in press),
having individuals think about Barack Obama does not always eliminate typical performance
differences under stereotype threat.
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