Stereotypes & Stereotype Threat Affect Computing Students National Center for Women & Information technology (NCWIT), J. Mcgrath Cohoon & the Academic Alliance

Stereotypes Are Good … Mental shortcuts for generalizing knowledge to other situations

And Stereotypes Are Bad … They can lead to mistakes, or miscategorization African American s with modification by Cohoon 2012

Common Stereotype: Feminine ≠ Technical Lagesen 2005

Race, age, body mass, … all have associated stereotypes Example: Who scores higher on math tests? -White male engineering students? -Asian male engineering students? Stereotypes Aren’t Just About Gender

Fear of confirming negative beliefs about my group …  Hinders performance  Affects choices and aspirations  Leads to harsh personal standards, opting out if not met Stereotypes Can Create Threatening Situations Correll 2004; Chasteen et al. 2005

Stereotype Threat: Easy to Trigger; Affects Motivated Students Some triggers: Gender imbalance in room Stereotyped physical space Attention called to gender

Stereotype Threat Masks Ability Remove threat and women test better  Advanced calculus course with 100 male, 57 female students  No gender difference in course grades  Significant difference in test performance without threat Good, Aronson, Harder, 2008

Stereotype Threat Reduces Learning and Persistence  Note-taking skill reduced by stereotype threat  Feelings of belonging impaired Appel et al. 2011; Good et al. 2012

 Don’t speak up in groups or classes  Reluctant to take leadership roles  Discount their performance Stereotype Threat Has Subtle Negative Effects Too

Some Interventions That Work  Emphasize growth in intelligence  Normalize  “Wise” feedback  Self-affirmation of values Aronson et al. 2002; Good et al. 2008; Cohen & Steele 2002; Purdie-Vaughns & Garcia 2011

Emphasize Growth in Intelligence The effort to master difficult material actually increases intellectual ability

Normalize the Struggle to Master It takes some time for most people to “get” this Keep working on it and it will click I’ll help

Provide “Wise” Feedback “I’m being critical, but I’m holding you to a high standard … I know you can do it” Results: Black students more likely to revise their work; grade gap between Black and White students reduced

Self-Affirmation Identify your most important value(s): »E.g., relationships with friends, family, being good at … Write a short paragraph about why this value is important to you. Confirm: “In general, I try to live up to these values.”

Conclusion Women and minority students are in our classes under different circumstances than majority men are. Nevertheless, we can create an environment that fosters ability, learning, and persistence of diverse students.

Learn More Create a stereotype threat-free environment for attracting able and diverse students to computing. See the resources listed on NCWIT’s Talk with Faculty Colleagues About Stereotype Threat (

Questions? Comments?

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