STEREOTYPE THREAT AND STEREOTYPE LIFT: THE CASE OF 10 YEAR OLD GIRLS AND BOYS

The model of stereotype threat, proposed by Claude Steele and his collaborators1 explains how negative stereotypes attached to an individual’s in-group can deteriorate their psychological and social functioning. Research based on this model has provided strong evidence that stereotype activation ascribing a negative trait to a group in a certain domain can impair the performance of that group’s members. The explanation of this effect offered by Steel & Aronson2 is based on the assumption that negative stereotype activation will induce fear of conforming to the stereotype, leading to higher levels of anxiety and arousal in stereotyped group members, which in turn lead to performance deficits in intellectual tasks. However, recent developments of this theory indicate that there is no single mediator of stereotype threat effects on performance. Schmader, Johns, & Forbes3 proposed a more complex model, focusing mainly on intrusive thoughts interfering with performance. They described how motivational, affective, physiological, and cognitive processes worked together to cause impairment of performance in the stereotyped domain. In this model psychological processes underlying the experience of stereotype threat are based on three core concepts: one’s in-group, the ability domain, and the self-concept. Specific links between these concepts are activated in stereotype threat situations, resulting in a cognitive imbalance. The link activated first concerns a negative relation between one’s concept of in-group and domain ability when one’s in-group is defined as deficient