Steele and Aronson (1995)

Who and when

Steele and Aronson (1995)

Method

Quasi Experiment

Aim

To demonstrate the existence and self-fulfilling prophecy effect of stereotype threat.

Participants

114 white and African American university students.

Procedure

Participants took a difficult aptitude test under two different conditions:

Stereotype threat condition

Students were told that their performance in the test would be an indicator of their underlying intellectual abilities.

Nonthreat condition

Students were told that the test was simply a problem-solving exercise and was not diagnostic of ability.

Findings

•  In the threat condition, African American participants performed worse than their white counterparts.

• In the nonthreat condition, African American students performed equally to their white counterparts.

Strengths

• High internal validity

• Clear correlation between variables

Limitations

• No cause an effect