Title

Stereotype Threat Among OXY Male Athletes and Non-Athletes

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2010

Abstract

This research investigated stereotype threat on academic performance in Occidental College male athletes and non-athletes by having participants either identify their athletic status (or lack of) either before or after taking an exam. This exam consisted of mathematics and English questions taken from a GRE practice book. The main hypothesis was that the athletes who identified their athletic status before taking the exam would perform worse than those who did so at the end of the exam. Sixty-seven men participated in the study either under the "High Threat" condition (making their athletic identity or lack of one salient at the beginning of the test) or in the "Low Threat" condition (marking their identity at the end). Results showed that the athletes in the "High Threat" condition performed worse than those in the "Low Threat" condition but only by 3%. An unexpected conclusion found that non-athletes scored much better in the "High Threat" condition than in "Low Threat" (by over 10%). Future research needs to be done in order to determine why non-athletes perform much better after noting that they do not participate in sports.

Advisor

Jaclyn Rodriguez

Department

psych

Support

Ford Research Endowment



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