1. Take home message
Understanding stereotype threat and wise criticism is essential for being a good mentor, supervisor or teacher

2. What are stereotype threat ?
Stereotype: a prevalent belief about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things that may or may not reflect reality.
Stereotype threat: the perceived risk of confirming a negative stereotype.
Stereotype threat can cause underperformance
Stereotype threat can lead to the belief that one is being judged unfairly
Everyone can be a victim of stereotype threat
Everyone has stereotypes

3. What is wise criticism?
Wise Criticism – Criticism where you explicitly let someone know
they are capable of a higher level of achievement.
Wise criticism mitigates the effects of stereotype threat

4. Exercise
Turn to your neighbor, can you recall a time that you felt judged by some for a superficial characteristic
or when you worried about confirming a negative stereotype

5. Stereotype threat leads to underperformance
Dr. Claude Steele describes in “Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us”
For people under stereotype threat, activity in part of brain responsible for logic and reasoning
activity in part of brain responsible for
fight or flight
blood flow
© O'Reilly Science Art
Anne Krendl, Jennifer Richeson, William Kelley and Todd Heatherton

6. Stereotype threat leads to underperformance
Students with high
SAT math scores
Remind group A
of gender
before taking exam
Tell group B
that exam has no
gender bias
Women underperformed
Women performed well
Claude Steele and Steve Spencer

7. Stereotype threat leads to feelings of being judged unfairly
Asked volunteers to test whether
they were treated differently by others
if they had a scar on their face
Volunteers spent time in make-up and
saw how they looked with the scar
but before they went into the meeting,
the scar was wiped off without their knowledge
Volunteers reported discrimination
© O'Reilly Science Art
Kleck & Strenta 1980

8. Exercise: Identify that stereotype
Script – postdoc walks into lab to talk with two new summer interns, one from a small school and one from a big one.
Postdoc says to small college student –” here let me do this for you – you probably don’t have labs at your school.” Postdoc then turns to summer intern from large school and says “I bet you don’t have any questions, do you?”
What are the stereotypes? Why are these stereotypes harmful for the small college student AND for the large research university student?
Summer intern
from small college
Summer intern
From large research university

9. Who can be a victim of stereotype threat?
Everyone!
Studies show that the STRONGEST students are often the most affected.
A top reputation can lead to Impostor syndrome.
© O'Reilly Science Art

10. Impostor syndrome Demographics [edit]
The impostor syndrome was once thought to be particularly common among women who are successful in their given careers, but has since been shown to occur for an equal number of men. It is commonly associated with academics and is widely found among graduate students.
[edit]

11. Exercise
The title of Steele’s latest work “Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us” comes from a story he heard of a young African-American man who whistled music from the classical musician Vivaldi as he was walked down the streets of Chicago.
This whistling, the young man thought, would disarm the tensions of the elderly people he thought were afraid of him and harbored negative stereotypes about him.
Steele asserts that we all “whistle Vivaldi” from time to time.
Have you ever “whistled Vivaldi”?
SAYING THAT YOU ARE FROM MIT
Dyslexia
Saying in a chemistry class that you are a biology student; in a physics class that you are a chem student

12. Who has stereotypes?
Everyone!
© O'Reilly Science Art

13. Who has stereotypes? fake CVs designed to have same qualifications
but with male name or female name
name
Male candidate is picked more often
Which candidate is better?

14. But logical scientists don’t have stereotypes, right?
Just changed the name on the CV and everything else was the same. Different researcher were then ask about hireability. Male students
were judged by both male and female professors to be more hireable, more competent, easier to mentor. Also you asked about salary, the male
name was viewed as deserving more pay. Lab manager position.
Moss-Racusin et al 2012 PNAS

15. Counteracting Stereotype Threat
Use wise criticism to create trust
Definition of Wise criticism—criticism in which you explicitly tell the student that you think they are capable of attaining a high level of success and achievement—helps students feel less defensive and less threatened.

16. Counteracting Stereotype Threat
Which response would you rather hear when you scored poorly on a test?

17. Counteracting Stereotype Threat
Giving no feedback

18. An informal survey
How do you know that you are good enough to apply for faculty positions?
“If my advisor doesn’t say I’m good enough for a particular position, I assume that I must not be qualified.”
“Unless my advisor tells me not to apply, I assume that I’m qualified.”
Saying nothing sends a message that you might not intend

19. Counteracting Stereotype Threat
Change the narrative.
Particularly for typically high-achievers, it is important to reassure them that everyone has difficulty at some point in their career.
Essentially, this serves as a counter-narrative to the stories they are telling themselves about how no one else who is successful has ever struggled to perform well.

20. Exercise
Exercise: Recall a moment when a mentor shared a story with you about a time when he or she struggled with a concept or felt inadequate, but then reached a high level of achievement or recall your own story.

21. Summary The bad news We all have stereotypes
We can all be victims of stereotype threat
Stereotype treat can lead to underperformance and the feeling of being judged unfairly
The good news
Wise criticism mitigate the effects of stereotype threat