Stereotype threat: the effect of expectancy on performance
Abstract
The goal of this study was to investigate to role of expectancy as a potential mediator of performance deficits under stereotype threat. In Experiment 1, female students were assigned to one of three experimental conditions in which they were told that women perform worse (Negative information), equally (Control) or better (Positive information) than men in logical–mathematical tests. Later, they were given a difficult math test and asked to estimate their performance prior to taking the test. Consistent with predictions, participants who considered logical–mathematical abilities important and received negative information regarding the ingroup showed lower levels of expectations and a sharp decrease in performance compared to women in the positive and control conditions. Moreover, expectancy was found to partially mediate the effect of stereotype threat on performance. In Experiment 2, we tested the generalizability of these results to non‐stigmatized groups. A group of Black Americans living in Italy were provided with favorable or unfavorable information about either their minority (Blacks) or their majority (Americans) ingroup. Consistent with predictions, participants both in the minority and in the majority condition had lower expectations and under‐performed after negative information about the ingroup. However, the level of expectancy was found to mediate the decrease in performance for participants in the Black but not in the American condition. In the discussion of these results it is suggested that, although comparable performance deficits are found for minority and majority members, the underlying processes may be different. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Stereotype threat effects are most pronounced in those for whom performance in the domain is highly important and self-relevant.
“Other research shows that stereotype threat effects are most pronounced in those for whom performance in the domain is highly important and self-relevant (Aronson, et al., 1998;Cadinu, Maass, Frigerio, Impagliazzo, & Latinotti, 2003;Cadinu, Maass, Lombardo, & Frigerio 2006).”
From Managing to clear the air: Stereotype threat, women, and leadership (2016) · cites this paper as Cadinu, Maass, Frigerio, Impagliazzo, & Latinotti, 2003
Cites
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.51.6.1173 · Cited by 91,542 · see citing works
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 · Cited by 91,532 · see citing works
A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., Hoffman, J. M., West, S. G., & Sheets, V. (2002) · Psychological Methods · doi:10.1037/1082-989x.7.1.83 · Cited by 9,406 · see citing works
Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans.
Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.797 · Cited by 8,181 · see citing works
Stereotype Threat and Women's Math Performance
Spencer, S. J., Steele, C. M., & Quinn, D. M. (1999) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1006/jesp.1998.1373 · Cited by 3,435 · see citing works
Pintrich, P. R., Marx, R. W., & Boyle, R. A. (1993) · Review of Educational Research · doi:10.3102/00346543063002167 · Cited by 2,222 · see citing works
The development of achievement task values: A theoretical analysis
Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (1992) · Developmental Review · doi:10.1016/0273-2297(92)90011-p · Cited by 1,717 · see citing works
Stereotype Susceptibility: Identity Salience and Shifts in Quantitative Performance
Shih, M., Pittinsky, T. L., & Ambady, N. (1999) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00111 · Cited by 1,366 · see citing works
When White Men Can't Do Math: Necessary and Sufficient Factors in Stereotype Threat
Aronson, J. M., Lustina, M. J., Good, C., Keough, K. A., Steele, C. M., & Brown, J. L. (1999) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1006/jesp.1998.1371 · Cited by 952 · see citing works
Croizet, J.-C., & Claire, T. (1998) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167298246003 · Cited by 851 · see citing works
Gender identification moderates stereotype threat effects on women's math performance
Schmader, T. (2002) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1006/jesp.2001.1500 · Cited by 711 · see citing works
Stereotype Susceptibility in Children: Effects of Identity Activation on Quantitative Performance
Ambady, N., Shih, M. J., Kim, A. C. H., & Pittinsky, T. L. (2001) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00371 · Cited by 630 · see citing works
African Americans and High Blood Pressure: The Role of Stereotype Threat
Blascovich, J., Spencer, S. J., Quinn, D. M., & Steele, C. M. (2001) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00340 · Cited by 628 · see citing works
Cheryan, S., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2000) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00277 · Cited by 436 · see citing works
Testing Stereotype Threat: Does Anxiety Explain Race and Sex Differences in Achievement?
Osborne, J. W. (2001) · Contemporary Educational Psychology · doi:10.1006/ceps.2000.1052 · Cited by 359 · see citing works
Test Anxiety: A Major Educational Problem and What Can Be Done about It
Hill, K. T., & Wigfield, A. (1984) · The Elementary School Journal · doi:10.1086/461395 · Cited by 288 · see citing works
Leyens, J.-P., Désert, M., Croizet, J.-C., & Darcis, C. (2000) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167200262002 · Cited by 243 · see citing works
Activating stereotypes undermines task performance expectations
Stangor, C., Carr, C., & Kiang, L. (1998) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.75.5.1191 · Cited by 221 · see citing works
Compensatory biases after ingroup threat: ‘yeah, but we have a good personality’
Cadinu, M. R., & Cerchioni, M. (2001) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.46 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Self-citationSchool Learning and Motivation
Dembo, M. H., & Eaton, M. J. (1997) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-012554255-5/50004-1 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Signaling Threat: How Situational Cues Affect Women in Math, Science, and Engineering Settings
Murphy, M. C., Steele, C. M., & Gross, J. J. (2007) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01995.x · Cited by 1,048 · see citing works
Nguyen, H.-H. D., & Ryan, A. M. (2008) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0012702 · Cited by 845 · see citing works
Purdie-Vaughns, V., Steele, C. M., Davies, P. G., Ditlmann, R., & Crosby, J. R. (2008) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.94.4.615 · Cited by 786 · see citing works
Davies, P. G., Spencer, S. J., & Steele, C. M. (2005) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.88.2.276 · Cited by 713 · see citing works
Managing to clear the air: Stereotype threat, women, and leadership
Hoyt, C. L., & Murphy, S. E. (2016) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.11.002 · Cited by 454 · see citing works
Does stereotype threat influence performance of girls in stereotyped domains? A meta-analysis
Flore, P. C., & Wicherts, J. M. (2015) · Journal of School Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2014.10.002 · Cited by 410 · see citing works
Contending With Stereotype Threat at Work: A Model of Long-Term Responses 1Ψ7
Block, C. J., Koch, S. M., Liberman, B. E., Merriweather, T. J., & Roberson, L. (2011) · The Counseling Psychologist · doi:10.1177/0011000010382459 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
Schmader, T., Forbes, C. E., Zhang, S., & Berry Mendes, W. (2009) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167208330450 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Barreto, M., Ellemers, N., & Banal, S. (2006) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.314 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Thoman, D. B., Arizaga, J. A., Smith, J. L., Story, T. S., & Soncuya, G. (2014) · Psychology of Women Quarterly · doi:10.1177/0361684313499899 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
Shewach, O. R., Sackett, P. R., & Quint, S. (2019) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/apl0000420 · Cited by 97 · see citing works
Stereotype threat and inflexible perseverance in problem solving
Carr, P. B., & Steele, C. M. (2009) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2009.03.003 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
Stereotype threat: the moderating role of locus of control beliefs
Cadinu, M., Maass, A., Lombardo, M., & Frigerio, S. (2006) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.303 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Self-citationRosenqvist, O., & Skans, O. N. (2015) · Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization · doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2015.06.020 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Confucian Values as a Buffer Against Age-Based Stereotype Threat for Chinese Older Adults
Tan, S. C., & Barber, S. J. (2020) · The Journals of Gerontology: Series B · doi:10.1093/geronb/gby049 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
- Authors
- Cadinu, M., Maass, A., Frigerio, S., Impagliazzo, L., & Latinotti, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Padua (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Cadinu, Mara
- Venue
- European Journal of Social Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2002-10-25
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 267-285
- ISSN
- 0046-2772 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0992
- OpenAlex
- W2152336140
- Cited by
- 245
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 14.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Journal of Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Padua Research Archive (University of Padova) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Università degli Studi di Padova
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Career Development and Diversity
- Keywords
- stereotype threat, expectancy, performance deficits, gender stereotypes, mathematical ability, African Americans, mediation, underperformance
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
