Stereotypes, Stereotype Threat and Job Selection

Dr Sharon Coen

Re-Engineering Gender

University of Salford, June 22nd 2015

• Stereotypes• The deep root of our biased thinking:

measuring ‘implicit associations’• Consequences of stereotyping• Stereotype threat• Counteracting stereotype threat

Outline

What do you know about this person?

• Favourite food?• Favourite transport?• Favourite movie?• What does X do in their free time?• What is X’s dream vacation?

X

X

Stereotypes - definition

• Widely shared generalisation about members of a social group (Hogg &Vaughan, 2005, p. 54)

…typing ‘intelligent’ in PowerPoint Clip Art…

Romantic

Intelligent

Caring

Aggressive

‘Intelligent People’ search on Google Images:

47 unique males, 3 females in the first screen

An association which runs deep…. The Gender-Career IAT• The IAT (Implicit Association Test) measures the

strength of association between concepts and attributes by looking at differences in how quickly one classifies relevant items into pre-established categories

• Take the Gender-Career IAT

What are the consequences of stereotyping?

• Stereotyping others: stereotype-consistent expectations attribution biases self fulfilling prophecies prejudice, discrimination

• Stereotyping Self: stereotype threat

Stereotype Threat

• ‘being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's group’ (Steele & Aronson, 1995).

• Spencer, Steel and Quinn, 1999 study 2

• Participants: University students good at maths

• 2 tasks, equal difficulty:– Half participants told the first task would lead to gender differences

and the second wouldn’t

– Half were told the second task would lead to gender differences and the first wouldn’t

Stereotype threat: Women and Maths

Stereotype Threat: Women and Maths

• Reframing the task• De-emphasizing threatened social identities• Encouraging self affirmation• Providing role models

More on Reducing stereotype threat

How can we reduce stereotype threat?

•Task: how can we apply this to a job interview?

How can we reduce stereotype threat?

Summary

• We defined stereotypes• We looked at some potential sources of such

stereotypes• We looked at how deep rooted stereotypes are• We provided examples of some effects that stereotyping

has on individuals’ social interactions and performance• We looked at the effects stereotypes have on

individuals’ self-beliefs and performance• We applied strategies to reduce thi risk to a job

interview situation