This study
examined whether stereotype threat might be less likely
in situations where there are incentives for strong
performance. In addition, the study was designed
to determine if stereotype threat might also affect
performance on a test irrelevant to the domain in
question. To address these issues, Black and White
undergraduates were told that the study examined
performance on two different types of tests and that
high performers across both tests would receive a
monetary reward. Half the students completed a
racial identity scale and a demographic form before
taking the tests and were told that tests were good
indicators of intelligence and ability (stereotype
threat for Blacks regarding cognitive ability). The other half of students were told they were
completing a personality and problem solving test, and
their racial and demographic information was collected
at the end of the study (control). The order of
completing the cognitive ability and personality tests
was also manipulated. Analysis of the performance
on the cognitive ability test showed that Black students
performed less well on the test than did Whites, but there
were no affects of the threat manipulation. Whites who
identified with the domain performed better on the
cognitive ability test than those who did not, but there
was no relationship between domain identity and
performance for Blacks. Different effects emerged from
analyses focusing on racial identity, depending on when
racial identity was assessed. Blacks scoring high in
racial identity before the test performed better on the
cognitive ability test than those who were low in racial
identity. In contrast, Blacks high in identity on a
measure completed after the test performed worse than
those Blacks low in racial identity. It appears that a
strong racial identity aids in performance, but good
performance can ironically decrease racial identity.
Consistent with this interpretation is the finding that
Black students who showed the biggest decrease in racial
identity from the beginning to the end of the experiment
performed best on the test. Thus, effective testing
performance might result in (or even require) disidentification over the course of testing. On
the personality test, individuals performed better
in the threat compared with the control condition, and
this effect was stronger for Black than for White
students. Overall, these findings point to a
relatively small role of stereotype threat when external
incentives for performance are established. In
such conditions, performance depends on both domain
identity and racial identity. In addition, this
study shows that stereotype threat can actually increase
performance on tasks unrelated to the stereotype.
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