Stereotypes Can Drag Down Performance Essay

Famous popstar Ke$ha once said, “You really can’t stereotype people or put them in boxes, it’s unfair.” Although this quote might seem silly at first, the singer has a point. Stereotypes are an important issue in today’s society, whether it is about race, gender, sexuality, or other areas, they are evident in many situations. To begin with, the article “How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance” by Shankar Vedantam, published in October of 2009, speaks about the phenomenon “stereotype threat”. This is when people are threatened by a negative stereotype they think applies to them, which they then can be subtly biased to live out. For example, reminding African Americans and Latinos of their race before an academic test can actually hurt their performance. Although many stereotypes revolve around race, women are also affected, mainly in the field of mathematics. An example, stated in the article by Vedantam, speaks about admission to college.

The male to female ratio was about fifty to fifty and the majority of them were lowerclassmen. The most noticeable types of stereotypes regard race, such as Asians and Mexicans, while there are very few gender stereotypes. Some interviewees say that they do not respond because they do not care, so they choose to ignore those stereotypes. On the other hand, some feel offended and might provide a counter argument to prove people who offensively speak about the stereotype wrong. One tenth grader says, “Sometimes I”ll try to use a stereotype that can offend them as a comeback to what they said to me.” To deal with this, they shake it off which can show that these high school students don’t stand up for themselves. In addition, they can view this entire situation as nonsense and consider it a waste of time to combat it. This threat is obviously a problem on campus as it is most noticeable at school, in class, with friends, and around other