Positive Stereotype Threat in Social Groups

This work examined stereotype threat within social §groups and whether stereotype threat would be seen §with a positive stereotype. Stereotype threat is §usually seen as a decrease in performance induced by §an anxiety within individuals fearing they will §confirm a pre-existing and culturally-known negative §stereotype. Science fiction fans were compared to a §matched sample of college students. Both groups were §given a 50-item problem-solving task described as an §intelligence test. Individuals were randomly §assigned to one of three conditions (1) no threat §condition, (2) general threat condition, §participants were told that people are §underperforming, or (3) specific threat condition §where participants were told that science fiction §fans were underperforming. It was hypothesized that §members of the social group science fiction fans §would be affected by a stereotype threat effect and, §therefore, underperform compared to non-members on §the task in the specific threat condition. This work §aimed to generalize stereotype threat to non-§academic situations within socially-constructed §groups and to positive stereotypes. The results did §not support the hypotheses.