The Effect of Stereotype Threat on Quantitative Reasoning

Abstract

Participants (N=172) were given the shortened 2001 version of the SAT quantitative section. A 2 (condition) by 3 (ethnicity) between-subjects factorial design was conducted, in which Caucasians, native-origin African-Americans, and foreign-origin African-Americans were randomly assigned to either a stereotype-threat group or a non-stereotype-threat group. The stereotype-threat group was told the SAT questions measured cognitive ability, while the non- stereotype-threat group was told the SAT questions compared two quantities. An ANOVA found no significant difference for the threat conditions or for the interaction between the threat conditions and the participants’ ethnicity. A significant difference, though, was found for ethnicity alone, in which the Caucasian participants received higher scores on the SAT compared to the native and foreign African-American participants. Additional evaluations, implications, and future directions will be discussed.