Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

Study Alert
Remember that the IAT allows 
measurement of attitudes 
about which people might 
not be consciously aware as
well as attitudes they wish
to keep hidden from others.
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602 Chapter 
17 
Social Psychology
likely to reduce prejudice and discrimination. Situations in which contact is 
relatively intimate, the individuals are of equal status, or participants must 
cooperate with one another or are dependent on one another are more likely 
to reduce stereotyping (Dovidio, Gaertner, & Kawakami, 2003; Tropp & 
Pettigrew, 2005; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006).
• Making values and norms against prejudice more conspicuous . Sometimes just 
reminding people about the values they already hold regarding equality and 
fair treatment of others is enough to reduce discrimination. Similarly, people 
who hear others making strong, vehement antiracist statements are subse-
quently more likely to strongly condemn racism (Czopp & Monteith, 2006; 
Ponterotto, Utsey, & Pedersen, 2006; Tropp & Bianchi, 2006).
• Providing information about the targets of stereotyping . Probably the most direct 
means of changing stereotypical and discriminatory attitudes is education: 
teaching people to be more aware of the positive characteristics of targets of 
stereotyping. For instance, when the meaning of puzzling behavior is 
explained to people who hold stereotypes, they may come to appreciate the 
actual signifi cance of the behavior (Isbell & Tyler, 2003; Banks, 2006; Nagda, 
Tropp, & Paluck, 2006).
• Reducing stereotype threat. Social psychologist Claude Steele suggests that many 
African Americans suffer from stereotype vulnerability, obstacles to performance 
that stem from their awareness of society’s stereotypes regarding minority 
group members. He argues that African-American students who receive 
instruction from teachers who may doubt their abilities and who set up special 
remedial programs to assist them may come to accept society’s stereotypes and 
believe that they are prone to fail (Aronson & Steele, 2005; Nussbaum & 
Steele, 2007).
Such beliefs can have devastating effects. When confronted with an academic 
task, African-American students may fear that their performance will simply confi rm 
society’s negative stereotypes. The immediate consequence of this fear is anxiety that 
hampers performance. But the long-term consequences may be even worse: Doubting 
their ability to perform successfully in academic environments, African Americans 
may decide that the risks of failure are so great it is not worth the effort even to 
attempt to do well. Ultimately, they may “disidentify” with academic success by 
minimizing the importance of academic endeavors (Steele, 1997; Stone, 2002). 
However, Steele’s analysis suggests that African Americans may be able to over-
come their predicament. Specifi cally, schools can design intervention programs to 
train minority group members about their vulnerability to stereotypes and provide 
them with self-affi rmation that reinforces their confi dence in their abilities and 
thereby inoculates them against the fear and doubt triggered by negative stereotypes 
(Cohen et al., 2006; Wilson, 2006).
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