Stereotype Threat Effects in Employment Settings

Evolved from a symposium that was presented at the 2002 SIOP conference, these papers discuss "Stereotype Threat": the pressure that individuals may feel when they are at risk of confirming, or being seen by others as confirming, a negative stereotype about a group which they identify. Especially relevant to this special issue are the forms of this threat that stem from negative stereotypes about a group's intellectual or cognitive abilities. The research findings related to stereotype threat have been noted by industrial-organization psychologists interested in personnel selection as they suggest a possible (partial) explanation for the mean difference in majority and minority cognitive ability test performance. That interest stimulated the four empirical research studies that are reported in this special issue.