Wicherts,
Dolan, & Hessen,
2005
These experiments
conceptualize stereotype threat as a source of
measurement bias in testing, allowing use of
mathematical modeling to separate latent from measured
variables. To allow this modeling in Experiment 1, White
and minority Dutch high school students completed a
multi-faceted test that was described either as
pertaining to their interests and abilities (control)
or, additionally, as an "intelligence test" (stereotype
threat for minority students). In addition, students in
the stereotype threat condition completed a form
regarding their ethnicity before taking the exam,
whereas students in the control condition did so after
taking the exam. Modeling of the data showed that
stereotype
threat produced measurement bias in the minority group,
and this bias arose in performance on the most difficult
of the subtests. Experiment 2 involved a reanalysis of
data from
O'Brien and Crandall (2003), illustrating
that stereotype threat for men and women in math could
be successfully modeled. Experiment 3 involved a
multi-faceted math test completed by male and female
Dutch undergraduates with no mention of sex differences
(control), the negation of sex differences (low
stereotype threat), or the endorsement of sex
differences in math (stereotype threat for women).
Modeling identified that stereotype threat affected math
test performance, and the strongest stereotype threat
effects again emerged on the most difficult subtest.
These studies provide a tool that may be useful for
examining stereotype threat in both laboratory and
real-world environments in which traditional statistical
analyses might be problematic or even impossible to
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