Stereotype Threat

Prior to starting DBC, I had never heard of stereotype threat or imposter syndrome. I had certainly felt the latter on numerous occasions, but was unaware that it had an official name. "Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's group." If that's a little too much psychology speak for you, Michael Inzlicht defines it as "a situational predicament in which people are or feel themselves to be at risk of confirming negative stereotypes about their social group." Basically, people will perform below their ability on tasks when they believe that doing so will prove a negative stereotype about a group with which they identify.

Upon first reading the topic for this post I really had no idea what I would be able to write about it. What would I, a white male from a predominantly affluent area, know about this? Aren't I supposed to be the paragon of privilege? If I even try writing about this I'll say something that will be taken the wrong way, or people will think I shouldn't even be broaching this topic, how could I possibly know anything about this, even with everything that I read I can apparently only feel any type of stereotype threat when playing sports or going up against an Asian male in math, or...whoa. So yeah, this is clearly not on the level with a lot of the topics that have been researched in regard to stereotype threat, but I started to get a bit of an idea as to how it might work. That is, if it were all conscious.

Most of what goes on in regard to stereotype threat, occurs in the sub conscious. Even when someone doesn't believe a negative stereotype against a group they identify with, just knowing about it can be enough to affect performance. This would have been problematic enough during the 1950s when racism was far more openly prevalent. Current events show that under the (often very thin) surface, these kinds of thoughts and stereotypes, while more obfuscated, are still very much widespread. Add to that, the speed with which information can spread via the internet and the anonymity offered therein, and it is nearly impossible for anyone to escape negative stereotypes about groups they might identify with.

The question then is what can be done to help mitigate the effects? Unfortunately this is where I have to go with this as I won't kid myself into thinking I have the answer to solve the underlying social issues. While a great deal of research has been done on this issue, the results aren't always conclusive. Educating people about stereotype threat before having them perform a task has yielded conflicting results. In one study, the performance of college women was boosted enough to eliminated the predicted gender gap on a challenging math test, while in another it lead women performing significantly worse on a calculus task. Despite this there is still hope, as some methods have shown promise in regards to reducing stereotype threat. Among them are modifying the language used in task descriptions, encouraging self-affirmation, providing role models, and moving people away from looking at intelligence as a fixed attribute.

So, that's stereotype threat in a tiny nutshell. I am sure we will all have our own worries and issues coming into onsite be they linked to this, imposter syndrome, or any of a million other things. That being said, there is one group that we can identify with that will hopefully bring us more encouragement than detriment. That group is DBC 2015 Fireflies. We are all in this together, as one group and together we can all get through this and ensure we are all maximizing our potential.