Wayne State University Wayne State University Theses 1-1-2010 Threat By Association: Minimal Group Affiliation And Its Outcome For Stereotype Threat Eric W. Fuller Wayne State University Follow this and additional works at:http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_theses Part of theCognitive Psychology Commons, and theSocial Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Fuller, Eric W., "Threat By Association: Minimal Group Affiliation And Its Outcome For Stereotype Threat" (2010).Wayne State University Theses.Paper 2. This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. THREAT BY ASSOCIATION: MINIMAL GROUP AFFILIATION AND ITS OUTCOME FOR STEREOTYPE THREAT by ERIC W. FULLER THESIS Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS 2010 MAJOR: PSYCHOLOGY Approved by: Advisor Date DEDICATION This work is dedicated to Mike Califano, James Geeting, and Jason Newman. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Rusty McIntyre for his many suggestions and comments that made this work possible, to my thesis advisers Dr. Pat Siple and Dr. Ira Firestone, and to my lab mates David Oberleitner and Phoebe Lin for their motivation and helpful guidance. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ………………………………………………………………………………………ii Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………………..……...iii List of Tables …………………………………………………………..……………………….v Chapter 1 – Introduction………………………………………………………….…….……..1 Chapter 2 – Rationale…………………………………………………………………………21 Chapter 2 – Study 1………………………………………………………….………………..24 Chapter 3 – Study 2…………………………………………………………….……………..34 Chapter 4 – General Discussion……………………………………..………...…………...41 Footnotes…….…..………….…………………………………………………………………50 Appendices…………………………………………………………………………………….51 References…………………………………………………..………………..………………..59 Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...…….74 Autobiographical Statement……………………………………………………..……………75 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Mean RAT scores for participants receiving different personality evaluations and group-related instructions on the RAT (Experiment 1)………………………………66 Table 2. Mean RAT scores as a function of gender and experimental condition (Experiment 1)………………………………………………………………………………….67 Table 3. Number of participants choosing which group will do better in the future on the RAT based on their received stereotype (Experiment 1)………………………………….68 Table 4. Number of participants choosing a partner from either group for future completion of the RAT based on their received stereotype (Experiment 1)…………….69 Table 5. Mean RAT scores for participants receiving identity mapping instructions and group-related instructions on the RAT (Experiment 2)…………………………………….70 Table 6. Number of participants choosing which group will do better in the future on the RAT based on their received stereotype (Experiment 2)………………………………….71 Table 7. Number of participants choosing a partner from either group for future completion of the RAT based on their received stereotype (Experiment 2)…………….72 Table 8. Number of participants choosing a partner from either group for future completion of the RAT based on their received stereotype and their gender (Experiment 2)………………………………………………………………………………………………...73 v 1 CHAPTER 1 Introduction “Stereotype threat is a general threat not tied to the psychology of particular stigmatized groups. It affects the members of any group about whom there exists some generally known negative stereotype (e.g., a grandfather who fears that any faltering of memory will confirm or expose him to stereotypes about the aged). Stereotype threat can be thought of as a subtype of the threat posed by negative reputations in general.” Steele, 1997 Negative stereotypes, of which all groups suffer, are a matter of concern for individuals, specifically for those who have a stake in disproving such stereotypes. Besides often being derogatory, the negative stereotypes may cause these individuals to over-think or monitor their performance in an attempt to disconfirm such beliefs. Ironically, such attempts may cause detriments in cognitive ability or attention that may lead one to confirm those negative stereotypes. Previous research on stereotype threat, however, has examined the issue more closely and determined that negative stereotypes cause detriments for various reasons. Though useful in exploring the mechanisms of stigma-based threats, using real groups (with their own histories) does not afford researchers the ability to examine the effect of negative stereotypes for peripherally or loosely held identities. Using theories of stereotype threat and minimal group methodologies the present research aims to explore whether or not stereotype- based threats can produce similar results using experimental groups, which are relatively free of stigmatized or stereotyped histories. Stereotype Threat 2 Individuals often identify closely with their race, gender, religion, as a manner of creating their place in society. Membership may be beneficial when one‟s group is stereotyped to be overly successful in a given domain, but a similar (though negative) effect can occur when one‟s group is stereotyped to be poor in another domain. Consequently, some individuals may suffer not necessarily as a function of their true ability, but rather due to the knowledge that their group has been known to perform poorly in a given task. This dilemma, often described as stereotype threat, focuses on the effect of negative stigma and how it affects the individuals to whom the stereotype would apply. In an attempt to explain underperformance of Blacks on standardized tests, Steele and Aronson (1995) completed a series of experiments to examine how expectations that one could possibly confirm negative stereotypes about one‟s group would lead to underperformance on academic tasks. The first and second study involved Black and White participants and their performance in a verbal abilities test. The authors hypothesized that Blacks taking a test framed as diagnostic would perform more poorly in comparison to Blacks who took a test that was not framed as diagnostic and more poorly in comparison to Whites who heard either set of instructions. The results supported their hypotheses and showed that Black participants did show decreased performance in comparison to Blacks who were instructed that the test was not diagnostic of intellectual ability as well as to Whites (from whom test label had no effect). It should also be noted that Whites‟ performance did not significantly change as a function of their condition in either study. In another study they showed that when Blacks indicated their racial category on a pre-test questionnaire, those individuals 3 underperformed in comparison to Whites who indicated their racial category and to both Blacks and Whites that did not indicate their racial category. The authors concluded that when activated and made salient via diagnostic testing, negative stereotypes were a driving force in explaining underperformance by Blacks in comparison to those without such stereotype activation. It is notable that these seminal findings were the result of real-world group effects (i.e. African-Americans and poor math performance) and so it is possible that these effects would appear for groups to which negative stigmata were not previously known or held by targeted, or „threatened‟, individuals. Stereotype threat and related theories have argued that the threat occurs in situations for which negative stereotypes are applicable, such as domain-relevant and diagnostic testing. Individuals perceive a risk in which they may confirm a negative stigma as it relates to their group. As a result, individuals would not only confirm negative stereotypes of their group, but also confirm the applicability of the stereotype regarding their own performance. When perceiving this possibility for relevant and important domains, it may result in the decrease in ability to perform successfully. Schmader, Johns, and Forbes (2008) have proposed that stereotype threat is a process in which both controlled as well as automatic processing is disrupted through various pathway, such as physiological stressors, self and situational monitoring, and suppression processes. These processes interact and eventually overload or otherwise decrease the efficacy of an individual‟s working memory. This decrease of coordinated informational processing eventually leads to decreased performance in controlled tasks. Additionally, their model holds considerable explanatory power in explaining the decreased performance in more automatic processes. Rather than working memory as 4 the primary factor responsible for performance decrease, individuals begin to monitor their otherwise automatic behavior. As a result, individuals become too vigilant in monitoring their behavior for stereotypical responses and suffer in task performance as a consequence. Given that Schmader and colleagues‟ model suggests that changes in various factors (physiological stressors, monitoring, and suppression) are the result of stereotype threat, it appears that any condition that allows these type of reactions should replicate similar effects, regardless of the source of the „threat‟. Past research has shown that stereotype threat occurs in members of different groups for which negative stereotypes and stigma exist, such as Blacks (Brown & Day, 2005; Steele & Aronson, 1995; Stone, Lynch, Sjomeling, & Darley, 1999) , women (Quinn & Spencer, 2001; Schmader & Johns, 2003; Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999), Whites (Aronson, Lustina, Good, Keough, Steele, & Brown, 1999; Stone, 2002), men (Brown & Josephs, 1999; Leyens, Desert, Croizet, & Darcis, 2000), Asians (Shih, 1999), Latinas (Gonzalas, Blanton, & Williams, 2002), the elderly (Hess, Auman, Colcombe, & Rahhal, 2003), and those low in SES (Croizet & Claire, 1998). Although these studies have found consistent effects of stereotype threat for negatively stereotyped groups, there are few, if any, that have attempted to produce threat in individuals via experimentally created groups, which should not have pre-existing stereotypes. Past studies have previously tested individuals using methodologies that include not only concern for the individual, but also concern for their closely identified and socially salient group. Thus, it‟s possible that individuals may suffer from similar effects even for peripherally held groups if the group membership is made salient, individuals identify with their group, and the group is described as being deficient in ability in a given