Positive academic stereotypes fuel student performance

By now it's commonly accepted that negative stereotypes about the academic performance of certain groups can hinder their achievement. New research now reveals a different twist on that pattern: Positive academic stereotypes--believing, for example, that Asians do well in math and science-- may work to a group's advantage.

In a study of 46 Asian-American female undergraduates, researchers gave them a 12-question math test under three conditions. A third of the students first completed a questionnaire focused on their female identity, but unrelated to math, before taking the test. Another third first completed a questionnaire that was also unrelated to math, but that called attention to their ethnicity. The rest filled out a gender- and ethnicity-neutral questionnaire.

Results revealed that, relative to controls, participants earned the highest test scores when the questionnaire emphasized their Asian identity and the lowest ones when it emphasized their female identity. The women, surmised the researchers, were performing according to powerful stereotypes that Asians possess excellent quantitative skills and women do not. "It's evidence that test performance is very malleable and highly susceptible to social and cultural cues," says Harvard University graduate student Margaret Shih, who led the study with the support of co-authors Todd Pittinsky and Nalini Ambady, PhD.

In an effort to show that it is indeed stereotypes that account for the performance differences, she and her research team replicated the study with 19 Asian-American high school students in Vancouver, British Columbia. There, recent immigrants make up the Asian population, and, Shih says, according to local stereotypes, the area's Asian students are struggling academically because they're still learning English. Comparatively, the majority population of Canadian students is believed to outperform Asian students in math. Thus, participants performed poorly on the math test relative to controls when their female and their Asian identities were emphasized.

The findings, published in the January issue of Psychological Science (Vol. 10,
No. 1, p. 80­83), challenge the notion that "standardized tests are static predictors of ability," and instead offer people hope for improving their test performance, says Shih.

"It appears that, going into a test, it's helpful to shift your mindset from, for example, student athlete to Harvard student," says Shih. "It could make a big difference in how you score."

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