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STEREOTYPE THREAT AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: New Findings from a Racially Diverse Sample of College Freshmen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2005

Douglas S. Massey  and
Mary J. Fischer
Douglas S. Massey
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Princeton University
Mary J. Fischer
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Connecticut
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Abstract

The theory of stereotype threat was developed to account for persistent minority underachievement in American colleges and universities. It hypothesizes that members of minority groups underperform academically because of unconscious fears of living up to negative group stereotypes. While evidence pertaining to stereotype threat has been positive, it mostly comes from small experimental studies of selected undergraduate subjects at a few universities. In this paper we test the theory of stereotype threat on a large, representative population of college and university students. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, which surveyed nearly 4,000 students at twenty-eight academic institutions, we construct scales to measure stereotype threat and use them to predict grades. We uncover a clear process of disidentification in response to minority stereotyping and show how it, along with other theoretically specified mechanisms, undermines the grade performance of minorities.

Keywords

Higher EducationStereotype ThreatMinority PerformanceRacial IdentityDisidentification
Type
STATE OF THE ART
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , March 2005 , pp. 45 - 67
Copyright
© 2005 W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research

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