Reminders of a positively stereotyped identity when facing stereotype threat: Identity consistency and identity accessibility as mediating mechanisms

Abstract

Being reminded of a positively stereotyped identity may mitigate against stereotype threat effects--performance decrements caused when stereotype threatening identities are salient (Rydell et al., 2009). I designed two studies to examine whether identity consistency--being comfortable belonging to two identities that differ in valenced stereotypes, and/or identity accessibility--suppression of the negatively stereotyped identity and accessibility of the positively stereotyped identity, mediates this relationship. Undergraduate women were reminded of negative math performance stereotypes associated with their gender, positive math performance stereotypes associated with their college student identity, both identities, or neither identity. In Study 1, math performance did not differ among conditions, suggesting that the identity consistency and/or identity accessibility task that were administered prior to the math test may have interfered with the stereotyped identity manipulation. Clarifying these methodological issues, Study 2 revealed decrements in math performance for women reminded of gender and college stereotypes, though this effect was moderated by pre-test math identification as well as administration order of the math test and identity accessibility task. High math identified women underperformed when reminded of both identity stereotypes compared to women reminded of gender stereotypes only, but only when identity accessibility was measured prior to math performance. This research did not identify mechanisms accounting for the multiple identity reminder-performance relationship, but rather suggests that future research needs to explore when multiple identities will or will not have protective consequences.