Stereotype Threat In Our Society

Superior Essays
In August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King gave out his speech “I have a dream” to the public and this was the first time that an African American gave such a powerful speech 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Two days ago, Love wins again in Taiwan and it became the first place in Asia that leads the way in LGBT marriage equality. People have fighting for stereotype all the time. It is not only worthy, but meaningful. However, stereotype still exists today and sometimes situations are even worser than 1980s which sounds impossible. In the book Whistling Vivaldi, the author Claude M. Steele proposed the idea of “stereotype threat”, which refers to “a standard predicament in which people have a pretty good idea of what other members of our society think about lots of things, including the major …show more content…
People seldom realize the negative influence of stereotype threat since it is not always reflect directly. Here, I want to analyze two significant experiments in the book in detail. Foremost, stereotype threats is one of the leadings reasons to destroy your confidence. According to the book, the author and some other psychologists did a famous experiment about stereotype threat. The experimenters divided black students into two groups and did the same to white students. The first thing they tested was about the athletic ability by playing the golf. One group of each side of students were told they were tested the athletic ability before the game started. Two groups of black students played the normal level, however, one group of white students that was told to be tested about the athletic ability did way worse than the other group that was told nothing. The second thing those experimenters tested was the mathematic ability. They repeated the procedures, but the result was totally different. Two groups of white students played the normal level, but one group of black students that was told before did pretty bad in math tests than the other group

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Stereotyping Analysis

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In this today world, Stereotypes plays an important role. Stereotyping is defined as a fixed conventional notion or conception of an individual or group of people. It may be basic or complex which people may apply to individuals or groups on the basis of their appearance, belief, behaviour. Stereotypes are found everywhere. It has been observed that our world seems to be improving in various ways that it is impossible to liberate it from stereotypes.…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What is stereotype threat? How do these threats affect all of us? And how do we deal with these threats? Claude Steele states, in his book Whistling Vivaldi, he believes stereotype threat, “Is a standard predicament of life. It springs from our human powers of intersubjectivity - the fact that as members of our society have a pretty good idea of what other members think about lots of things, including the major groups and identities in society,”(Steele 5).…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stereotype threat is not tied to the psychology of a particular group. It affects members of a group with a known negative reputation. For example, in Aronson’s article, a Muslim taxi driver feels the need to put up an American flag or a sign declaring, “Proud to be an American!” after the 911 incident because a large group of people fear that Muslims are terrorists. To experience this threat, one need not believe in it; nonetheless, it remains a life-shaping force.…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Moreover, I was guilty of stereotyping Americans. I should not have believed the stereotype about Americans that most of them are overweight. Before I came to America, someone told me that Americans are obese, and if I wanted to keep a good figure, I’d better cook Chinese food and eat as little American food as I could. After I came here, I noticed that a large amount of girls I saw on the downtown streets and campus own a thin and healthy figure. I realized that this stereotype mislead me, since just a few people are overweight.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The impact of stereotypes depicted in the media, still has an effect on individuals in society today. As a young black African American women who often speaks her mind, with a very strong personality, people may very well stereotype me as a “Angry Black Women” commonly depicted on black television shows seen today. “Schemas of how people are likely to behave based simply on the groups to which they belong are known as stereotypes.” (Feist, G. & Rosenberg, E.2012). Stereotypes, form conclusions about people before even interacting with them based on a certain race ethnicity or even how you may look, down to the clothes you wear.…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his article “Thin Ice”, Claude Steele explains this phenomenon as being the result of “stereotype threat.” He goes on to define this term: “the threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype, or the fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that stereotype.” Steele claims that everyone can experience some form of stereotype threat, because we are all members of some stereotyped group. However, it is only a problem in situations in which we are aware that we could be judged by our stereotype. My last statement is the key to overcoming the issue of stereotype threat: if the threat is only relevant when we…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Template for Assignment #4 - Hispanic & Women Stereotypes Drawing from chapters 11 (Hispanic Americans) and 13 (Women as Minority Group) and both YouTube videos on Latinas featured in Module 10, identify and assess sociological traits pertaining to the minority status of Hispanic Americans and women. Such traits may be found in the Key Terms sections of both chapters. Step 1. After watching both videos, identify, define and analyze 2 sociological traits which appear to be specific to Hispanic Americans (tip: “being crazy” is not one of them).…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In order, to understand a stereotype threat society must understand the concept behind it. In the book, Whistling Vivaldi by Claude M.Steele describes a stereotype threat to be apart of a social identity. From previous learnings, stereotype threat is a standard predicament of life, meaning this threat is a cognitive thought that society has about a specific group of people and automatically apply it to all individuals in that group. Stereotype threats can drive down a person's performance because they are trying to prove the threat of the stereotype wrong. Believe it or not, but stereotype threat is perceived all around our environment.…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout “Whistling Vivaldi,” Claude M. Steele proposes various reasons as to why stereotypes of a person’s identity can lead to drastic negative effects on a students functioning in school. Not only does Steele…

    • 1992 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Single stories are told everyday, affecting many people. Most of these stories affect people negatively. These stories are one view of one specific beings, race, belief and in some cases culture. They result in stereotypes and often hate toward that person or group of people, leading to hate and ignorance. It is of a human’s nature to judge first by what they see and secondly by what they come to realize.…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stereotype Threat

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In an era when women are increasingly prominent in medicine, law, and business, why are there so few women scientists and engineers? A 2010 research report by AAUW presents compelling evidence that can help to explain this puzzle. Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) presents in-depth yet accessible profiles of eight key research findings that point to environmental and social barriers — including stereotypes, gender bias, and the climate of science and engineering departments in colleges and universities — that continue to block women’s progress in STEM. The report also includes statistics on girls’ and women’s achievement and participation in these areas and offers new ideas for what each of us can…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Middle-Easterners are terrorists, African-Americans are violent, “white” people have guns and Asians are all smart. These are all stereotypes that affect people's everyday lives. Every person, young and old, is labelled with either positive or negative stereotypes. The three sources, “Hum” by Naomi Shihab Nye, “Behind the Bedroom Wall” by Laura E. Williams and “Do teachers treat children differently based on their color? Study says yes” by Yolanda Young show that stereotypes can control people's lives and because of this our society needs to end it.…

    • 1255 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Victims Of Stereotypes

    • 147 Words
    • 1 Pages

    as well as,”Similarly, telling test-takers that people of Asian decent score better than other students depresses the performance of white men.” The difference in the test-takers…

    • 147 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Stereotype Threat Theory

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In fact, it because they lose confidence because of stereotypes and are anxiety and worry about confirming the stereotype threat against themselves or their group member. In addition to that Steele stated that “the black students, suffering their form of stereotype threat during the golfing task, golf drastically worse than the white students” (10). He explain that the black students suffering from the stereotype threat that directly interfere with identities contingency. The result clearly show that stereotype threat is so strong that it occupy most of the people brain.making it difficult to break down the…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination has been a core topic in social psychological research in an attempt to understand the origins of biases and impact on groups and individuals (Dagner & Dalege, 2013). The terms prejudice, discrimination, and stereotype, are often used mutually in daily dialogue. Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination are biases that contribute to the creation of social inequality in the society (Fiske, 2008). Most often people are biased against other individuals outside of their social connection, displaying stereotypical behaviors, showing prejudice and discrimination. Formerly, individuals are more explicit with their biases, however during the 20th century, it has become less socially acceptable to exhibit bias, prejudice, and…

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays