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University Studies 114C: Ways of Knowing in the Social Sciences

Jessica Pham
October 26, 2011
Response Paper 5: Spencer and Steele


Prejudice can arise for all types of groups of people. It is not only towards race or gender
that stereotypes is made. It can be from the characteristics such as the color of a persons hair,
the sexual orientation of an individual, or even the type of car a person drives. According the
Claude Steele and Steven Spencer, writers of Stereotype Threat and Womens Math
Performance, stereotype threat is the experience of being in a situation where one faces
judgment based on societal stereotypes about ones group (5). In their publication and along
with my personal experience, social judgment of certain groups of people may prevent them
from succeeding in the stereotypes that they are placed in.
Steele and Spencer observed different groups of men and women to determine if the
stereotype about women doing poor in math compared to men affected the females at all. Three
studies were done with different experiments to confirm their idea that it does affect women. The
first study showed that women did just as well as men in simple math but did far worse when it
came to difficult levels of math. Study 2 examines if stereotype type is the reason for outcome of
Study 1 with the difficult test. In the second study, a group of students were told that there was
no gender difference with the results of the test and the other group was told the opposite. It turns
out that, when the participants are told that gender difference will affect the results, women did
dramatically worse than men. When participants are told that gender has not effect, women
performed the same as men. Women in this second group are less concerned with gender
differences and so they focus better. Study 3 examines the same study as Study 2 but with a less
highly selected sample. The results are the same as Study 2. In conclusion, stereotype threat
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against women limits their abilities but their performance can be improved when gender
difference are not made.
Being Asian, I always hear the stereotype that we are good only at math. Throughout
elementary and middle school, I was in classrooms of primarily African Americans and
Caucasians who constantly remind me that I have a natural talent of being proficient in math and
good at nothing else. Because of the negative comments from others, I kept up with the
stereotype and only did well in mathematics. Writing and reading on the other hand, were in no
degree close to skills I had in math. I had trouble comprehending readings and writing essays
were challenges. In my years in high school, I had observed that race does not affect a students
capability in math. I have found classmates who are experts in the subject and are not Asians and
I have also found Asians classmates who do well in English. When I realized that there were
students who were good at writing, I had the motivation to try harder. The stereotype threat
observed from my experience in the past no longer applied when I got to high school.
Stereotype threat is certainly a problem in general education and definitely an issue in
college education. In correspondence to my personal example, stereotypes at a young age can
surely affect a students ability to perform in school. Those who are frequently told that their
group act a certain way will eventually end up following the stereotype. As stated in the Steele
and Spencer publication, when a stereotype about ones group indicts an important ability,
ones performance comes under an extra pressure and this extra pressure may interfere with
performance (6). The misjudgment would then grow larger and have a stronger impact. In
agreement with Claude Steele and Steven Spencer, the idea that women do poorly in math than
men do will encourage the idea that women are subordinate to men when it comes to higher
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levels of math. This is the case with higher levels of math, such as those in college. Therefore, in
both general and higher education, stereotype threat needs to be addressed.
Stereotype threats are generated from society. They exist from groups of individuals
promoting the misunderstanding about other groups of people. By preventing the spread of
negative labels on people, those who are spoken about can fight against the stereotypes
prescribed on them. It would be more profitable by endorsing the idea that people act as they do
and do as they please from individual talent and choice because people would be counted as a
single person and not as a whole. There are many ways in encouraging people to no longer speak
of stereotypes. In my opinion, those who talk of people as groups and not individuals, do so to
look down on others and when their stereotypes are true, they are pleased with themselves. By
ignoring the false judgment of others, stereotypes would no longer have any meaning. Also,
educating young people to avoid stereotyping others will also help reduce the amount of
stereotype threats there are. Although there may be children whose parents are promoting
stereotype, there are more parents who are against it. The challenges of removing stereotype
threats require one step at a time.