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Stereotype threat was defined by Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson in 1995 as “being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one’s group.” In landmark research, Steele and Aronson demonstrated that Black participants performed worse than White participants during a test when they believed that they were at risk for fulfilling stereotypes about Black people’s intellectual abilities. When that stereotype threat was removed, Black participants performed similarly to their White counterparts. Stereotype threat has been found to be present in medicine. In a 2020 study of medical students, 82% of Black respondents had high scores on a measure of vulnerability to stereotype threat, as compared with 4% of White respondents.2 When Black applicants see photographs of only non-Black graduates on the walls, they may perceive the threat of a negative stereotype, such as “Black people are not smart,” and perform worse than expected.
November 14, 2020