Stereotype threat and the mass media : the athletic test performance of black and white students
Abstract
An experiment showed that a sports news article based on negative racial stereotypes about Black or White athletes can impede athletic performance based on the theory of stereotype threat. In the experiment, White participants performed significantly worse at basketball when they were exposed to the race priming news article. In comparison, Black participants performed significantly better at basketball when exposed to the same race priming article as the White participants. The experiment also observed the effect of stereotype threat on the football performance and situational anxiety levels of Black and White participants. The implications of the findings for the theory of stereotype threat (Steele and Aronson, 1995) and discussion of Black and White athletes in the news media were discussed.
Degree
M.A.