Stereotypes Have Profound Effect on Intellectual Test Performance
NEW HAVEN, Conn.
Yale researchers have found that the existence of negative stereotypes about abilities such as intelligence actually enhances the performance of those who do not bear the stereotype.
There have been many studies about how pervasive negative stereotypes about racial minorities and women can affect the performance of those targeted by such stereotypes.
“We were interested in whether these stereotypes also affect people they don’t target, or the reverse phenomenon,” says Gregory Walton, a graduate student in the psychology department at Yale and co-author of the study published last month in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
