Griffin Epstein

Reilly Melov
Michael Iwamiya
Kapena Spring
OConnor
1st Honors English 9
9 April 2016
The Hidden Epidemic
When someone contracts a disease they may know something is wrong. Certainly when a
disease affects a country and the world there will be some attention directed towards the
situation. However a horribly dangerous disease has affected the United States and the world for
worse.
Stereotypes have not received the same attention as other serious problems in the United
States but they are a major problem that should be addressed now. Stereotypes constantly affect
people especially minorities in their daily lives. These stereotypes become life-changing for the
worse when they become self-fulfilling.
A nerd playing sports. A jock trying in the classroom. A woman lifting weights. A man doing
ballet. Those are all ways to break stereotypes. These self-fulfilling stereotypes not only prevent
these actions from happening, but they reverse them and sub-consciously make the person fit
into these stereotypes. The expectation and implementing of stereotypes on people is a epidemic
that the majority of people of also do subconsciously because it's societal norm.
However, the more important part of the subconsciousness is that when people are subject to
stereotypes is that they are self-fulfilling since they're also societal norms. An African American
girl may never be able to reach her true potential only because she is under the constant shadow

of stereotypes. This is called the stereotype threat according to Claude Stelle a physiologist at
Stanford University.
In an interview that students did of their fellow peers they discovered that most people had
stereotypes inflicted on them by people that didn't really know them and where making first
impressions. So why do people change or alter the ways especially subconsciously even though
they barely know or might not even respect the person?
The answer may lie in how stereotypes affect people on tests. Stereotypes can cause people to
subconsciously do worse on tests often depending on who is giving the test and or the persons
race relation with the test. For example a white on a math test may score lower than his potential
because the stereotype is that he is not supposed to do well. However he may score especially
lower if the test is administered by an Asian or he is told about the stereotype- Asians are good
at math and science, whites are bad at math.
That study administered by sociologist Min-Hsuing Huang shows us that when the issue of
the stereotypes are then made salient to the person they than perform worse. That means that
people are not performing at their potential level not because they fell to impress people they
don't even know but because but rather there is an impending weight placed on them that people
can't even notice or feel that drastically pulls down their performance. Even when people were
told about the results of Huangs study they found it interesting but they felt it didn't apply to
them! That shows this really is a hidden problem that hurts peoples performance in life and on
tests yet most of time the people has no idea the stereotypes are affecting them at all.
In a study conducted by Robert J. Rydell has found that women who are good at a certain
skill are more likely to be affected by a negative stereotype because they are more invested in
disapproving the stereotype and are more distracted by the stereotype that women who have not
learned the skill. This study shows how it is more important for environments and conditions to

be created in where stereotypes do not affect people in academics. If creating an environment

like this is not not done, then small problems could occur over time, and could slowly worsen.
A stereotypes threat also varies depending on the setting. For example, the threats diminish
when race and gender are not made salient in academic or workplace settings, and also when
people are told that test are not to measure inherent ability. This can cause the person in the
stereotypical group to do better on tests because they don't feel the pressure of the stereotypical
threat. These settings free of stereotypes could change how the world works, and allow people to
have better chance at a full, uninterrupted education.
So how do we stop stereotypes from becoming self-fulfilling? Since we already showed we
can't stop stereotypes from becoming self-fulfill when they become the mass societal norm we
must stop or slow the popularity of the stereotypes. We do that by making an inclusive
environment for all especially when theyre in a place that they might not be expected. For
example a Latino on a tennis team, a woman on a baseball team, an African-American man in the
kitchen, or a man in a dance class. Embrace those people, make them feel included as possible,
and support them as much as possible, and lastly stand up and stop people that place stereotypes
on those people or even discriminate against them that are trying make those people not feel
included.
Everyone should always have the chance to excel where or how they want it. No matter what
gender, race, religion, athletic ability, smartness, or ideas they have they should have chance to
excel in any place in this world. If that happens we can cure the disease of stereotypes, reverse
the bad trend we had created of a growing number of effective stereotypes, and go down the right
path where we all always feel welcome.
Works Cited
Vedantam, Shankar. "How a Self Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance."
Washington Post. N.p., 2 Feb. 2009. Web. 9 May 2016.

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