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‘Be prepared’: An implemental mindset for alleviating social‐identity threat
Author(s) -
Dennehy Tara C.,
BenZeev Avi,
Tanigawa Noriko
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/bjso.12071
Subject(s) - mindset , psychology , stereotype threat , priming (agriculture) , social psychology , social identity theory , identity (music) , developmental psychology , social group , philosophy , botany , germination , physics , epistemology , acoustics , biology
Stereotype threat occurs when people who belong to socially devalued groups experience a fear of negative evaluation, which interferes with the goal of staying task focused. The current study was designed to examine whether priming socially devalued individuals with an implemental (vs. a deliberative) mindset, characterized by forming a priori goal‐directed plans, would help these individuals to overcome threat‐induced distracting states. Participants from low and high socioeconomic status backgrounds (measured by maternal education; SES m ) completed a speeded mental arithmetic test, an intellectually threatening task. Low‐SES m individuals performed comparably and exhibited similar confidence levels to high‐SES m counterparts only when induced with an implemental mindset, suggesting that implemental mindset priming may help to create equity in the face of stereotype threat.