The Effects of Stereotype Threat and Double-Minority Status on the Test Performance of Latino Women

• Published in: Personality & social psychology bulletin Vol. 28; no. 5; pp. 659 - 670
• Main Authors: Gonzales, Patricia M., Blanton, Hart, Williams, Kevin J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks, CA SAGE Publications 01.05.2002; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Achievement Tests; Ethnic Identity; Ethnic minorities; Gender; Gender inequalities; Group identification; Group Identity; Hispanic American people; Hispanic Americans; Latin American Cultural Groups; Minority & ethnic groups; Performance evaluation; Sex; Social psychology; Stereotypes; Task performance; Threats; Whites; Women
• ISSN: 0146-1672; 1552-7433
• DOI: 10.1177/0146167202288010

This study investigated the interactive influences of diagnosticity instructions, gender, and ethnicity as they related to task performance. In a laboratory experiment of 120 male and female, Latino and White college students, both a gender-based and an ethnicity-based stereotype-threat effect were found to influence performance on a test of mathematical and spatial ability. Closer inspection revealed that the gender effect was qualified by ethnicity, whereas the ethnicity effect was not qualified by gender. This suggests that the ethnicity of Latino women sensitized them to negative stereotypes about their gender, leading to a performance decrement in a context in which stereotype threat was activated. In contrast, it appeared that the gender of Latino women did not sensitize them to negative stereotypes about their ethnicity, because both male and female Latinos evidenced ethnicity-based stereotype threat. These findings have implications for the interplay between multiple group identities as they relate to concern for confirming negative stereotypes.