December 12, 2006

With Subtle Reminders, Stereotypes Can Become Self-Fulfilling - "A number of experiments show that subtle cues can alter academic preferences -- and test performance -- without anyone being aware of it."

"Before we go any further into these troubling waters, let us halt for an important caveat: This phenomenon does not explain all differences in test scores or academic preferences. People clearly do have different temperaments, and talent and application matter greatly. If you spent the last semester tuned out, that provides a simpler explanation for poor grades than the activation of subtle stereotypes. But the research does raise troubling questions for academicians and parents, not least because the cues we are talking about are so commonplace. Indeed, the research study on the arts-math preferences, conducted by psychologists Jennifer Steele at York University in Toronto and Nalini Ambady of Tufts University in Boston, proved that cues do not have to involve explicit questions."

posted by Melinika 17 years ago
  • It would be interesting also to see these kinds of tests performed in other countries and compared. There is a lot of controversy here in Japan on occasion in regards to having the flag and singing the national anthems in classrooms. Of course back in my day in the non-air conditioned Australian classrooms we only had chairs and desks and were glad for it! But seriously - I couldn't recall any of these types of cues in the study environment.
  • Right, that's what gets you - it's so subtle, and so everyday, you're not aware of it at all - and yet it has a big enough effect that when the correlation is pointed out, well, it's rather creepy, isn't it?
  • It's either very creepy and gomichild is super non-observant.... or depends on the place you grew up in....
  • That is interesting. gomi's point makes sense, in so far as stereotypes are going to differ from culture to culture, but the substantial impact would be similar. This is what I always took the early movements for race and gender equality to be on about when they talked about 'empowerment' in the personal sense, and it directly addresses this effect.
  • You humans snd your intricate spongelike brainses!
  • "Butz designed the study after Florida law mandated that an American flag be hung in public classrooms. He found that the flag boosted the performance of white students but not minorities. White students given a math test in a room without a flag solved 44 percent of the problems. Those shown the flag solved 51 percent. Minorities solved 42 percent of the problems without the flag and 41 percent with it -- no difference. Makes you wonder, doesn't it, about the hidden power that lies in the ordinary things around you?" Actually it makes me wonder about experimental design. Was this a double-blind experiment? How many students were actually tested? This is important because there's only a 6 percent difference between the scores of the white students. What kind of math problems were in each set? Clearly you can't give them the same problems to solve over again right?
  • Slightly off-topic, but just saw this stereotype busting site advertised on another site. Looks pretty good, though I was crap at the Flash games designed for kids.
  • Wait wait wait! Asians aren't better at math? Sorry, I always thought that stereotype was hilarious.
  • Wow, cues about the arts make people think more about the arts. How WEIRD.
  • Did you read the article, anatinus? The cues were - at first glance - completely unrelated to arts or math. In the first case mentioned, one simply brought one's gender to mind, indirectly, and the other was about telephone service, for goodness' sake. Later, similarly, When 5- to 7-year-old and 11- to 13-year-old Asian girls are subtly reminded of their Asian identity, they do better at math tests; when subtly reminded about their sex, they do worse. This is fascinating, and not a little disturbing.
  • I hate blue-eyed people. They're so fucking smug.
  • I'm ready to call bullshit on the study. I have my neutron statistics death ray ready and I'm just about to unfurl the American flag right here...
  • The writer being of Indian descent I am assuming he wrote this to compensate for his small penis.
  • I'm ready to call bullshit on the study. Actually, my brother does research in this area, so I can verify that what these people are doing is legit, if not entirely uncontroversial. Actually, I have a moment of nationalistic pride here: he was doing research on steriotyping in Canada, and he had a very devil of a time. It turns out that your average Canadian undergraduate just isn't racist enough to measure very easily.
  • Actually, my brother does research in this area, so I can verify that what these people are doing is legit, if not entirely uncontroversial. I totally agree the area is a legit area of study. It's the particular finding, about the flag, that makes me go hmmmmmm.....