Citation

Dennehy TC, Ben-Zeev A, Tanigawa N. Br. J. Soc. Psychol. 2014; 53(3): 585-594.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Wiley Blackwell)

DOI

10.1111/bjso.12071

PMID

24725278

Abstract

Stereotype threat occurs when people who belong to socially devalued groups experience a fear of negative evaluation, which interferes with the goal of staying task focused. The current study was designed to examine whether priming socially devalued individuals with an implemental (vs. a deliberative) mindset, characterized by forming a priori goal-directed plans, would help these individuals to overcome threat-induced distracting states. Participants from low and high socioeconomic status backgrounds (measured by maternal education; SESm ) completed a speeded mental arithmetic test, an intellectually threatening task. Low-SESm individuals performed comparably and exhibited similar confidence levels to high-SESm counterparts only when induced with an implemental mindset, suggesting that implemental mindset priming may help to create equity in the face of stereotype threat.

Language: en