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Objective: The aim of this study was to examine what factors make people with Parkinson's disease more susceptible to stereotype threat (i.e., the concern of being evaluated in line with negative group‐based stereotypes) and the clinical consequences of this. Method: Forty‐nine people with Parkinson's disease completed a measure of stereotype threat, as well as measures that indexed potential antecedents and clinical consequences of stereotype threat. Results: Younger age and greater communication difficulties emerged as significant predictors of stereotype threat. Higher stereotype threat was also associated with increased emotional distress. Conclusions: These findings are an important first step in understanding stereotype threat in Parkinson's disease and may help to guide the development of intervention and educational efforts aimed at countering its effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Male employees are a traditionally advantaged group, but when working in a female-dominated industry they may be vulnerable to negative gender stereotypes. The current research examined stereotype threat among men in two traditionally feminine jobs. Study 1 measured stereotype threat among primary school teachers and found that men experienced more stereotype threat than women, and that feelings of stereotype threat were related to negative job attitudes for men but not women. Study 2 manipulated the direction of social comparisons to elicit stereotype threat among male child protection workers. For men but not women, upward social comparisons with a successful feminine target elicited stereotype threat. In turn, stereotype threat was associated with intentions to resign and feeling expected to perform stereotypic masculine work tasks. These results suggest that despite their advantaged status, men in pink-collar jobs are susceptible to workplace stereotype threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives People with a history of substance abuse are subject to widespread stigmatization. It seems likely that this societal disapproval will result in feelings of stereotype threat, or the belief that one is the target of demeaning stereotypes. If so, stereotype threat has the potential to contribute to functional difficulties including poor social outcomes. Methods Eighty drug users on opioid substitution therapy and 84 demographically matched controls completed measures of mental health and social function. The opioid substitution therapy group were additionally asked to complete a measure that focused on their feelings of stereotype threat in relation to their drug use history. Bivariate correlations and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to establish the magnitude and specificity of the relationship between stereotype threat and social functioning. Results Relative to controls, the opioid substitution therapy group reported higher levels of negative affect and schizotypy, and poorer social functioning, with all three of these indices significantly correlated with their feelings of stereotype threat. The results also showed that stereotype threat contributed significant unique variance to social functioning in the opioid substitution therapy group, even after taking into account other background, clinical, and mental health variables. Conclusions Social functioning is an important aspect of recovery, yet these data indicate that people with a history of drug abuse who believe they are the target of stereotypical attitudes have poorer social functioning. This relationship holds after controlling for the impact of other variables on social functioning, including mental health. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. Practitioner points Concerns about being stereotyped can shape the social experiences of opioid substitution therapy patients., Opioid substitution therapy patients who feel negatively stereotyped experience greater social function deficits, and this relationship emerges after controlling for important clinical and mental health variables., Understanding the relationship between feeling stereotyped and social function may assist practitioners in their treatment., The study is cross-sectional, and thus, experimental or longitudinal research is required to determine the causal direction between stereotype threat and social function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their efforts to recruit and retain female employees, organizations often attempt to make their workplaces "family-friendly." Yet there is little research on how women view family-friendly policies, particularly women who experience gender-based stereotype threat, or the concern of being viewed through the lens of gender stereotypes at work. Pilot research with female managers (N = 169) showed that women who experienced stereotype threat perceived more negative career consequences for utilizing familyfriendly policies. We then conducted two studies to further probe this relationship. Study 1 replicated the relationship between stereotype threat and the perceived consequences of utilizing family-friendly policies among women who recently returned to work after the birth of a child (N = 65). In Study 2 (N = 473), female employees who reported feelings of stereotype threat perceived more negative consequences of utilizing family-friendly policies, but they also reported greater intentions to use these policies. Our findings suggest that female employees are susceptible to stereotype threat, which in turn is associated with more negative views of family-friendly policies. Thus, the mere provision of such policies may not create the kind of family-friendly workplaces that organizations are attempting to provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because women are in the minority in masculine fields like finance and banking, women in these fields may experience stereotype threat or the concern about being negatively stereotyped in their workplace. Research demonstrates that stereotype threat among women in management and accounting leads to negative job attitudes and intentions to quit via its effects on identity separation, or the perception that one’s gender identity is incompatible with one’s work identity. The current work extends this research to related outcomes among women in finance. In this study, 512 women working in finance completed a survey about their work environment, their well-being at work, and whether they would recommend the field of finance to younger women. Results showed that, to the extent women experienced stereotype threat in their work environment, they reported diminished well-being at work and were less likely to recommend their field to other women, and these outcomes were mediated by identity separation. Recruitment and retention of women into fields where they have been historically underrepresented is key to achieving the “critical mass” of women necessary to reduce perceptions of tokenism as well as stereotyping and devaluing of women. The current work sheds light on psychological factors that affect these outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stereotype threat, or the belief that one may be the target of demeaning stereotypes, leads to acute performance decrements and reduced psychological well-being. The current research examined stereo- type threat among older employees, a group that is the target of many negative stereotypes. Study 1 surveyed older workers in two different organizations regarding their experiences of stereotype threat, their job attitudes and work mental health, and their intentions to resign or retire. Across both samples, feelings of stereotype threat were related to more negative job attitudes and poorer work mental health. In turn, these negative job attitudes were associated with intentions to resign and (possibly) retire. In Study 2, younger and older employees were surveyed. The results indicated that only for older employees were feelings of stereotype threat negatively related to job attitudes work mental health, and intentions to resign. The implications of these findings for understanding job attitudes and intentions among older workers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies investigated antecedents and consequences of stereotype threat for female employees. The results of Studies 1 and 2 suggest that social comparisons with men are associated with feelings of stereotype threat whereas social comparisons with women are not. Stereotype threat, in turn, was associated with conflict surrounding women's identity as female employees and with decreased perceived likelihood of achieving career goals. Study 3 extended these findings by demonstrating that feelings of stereotype threat are also negatively related to workplace attitudes and turnover intentions. Furthermore, the effect of stereotype threat on these job attitudes and intentions was itself mediated by identity conflict and perceived likelihood of achieving career goals. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The experience of stereotype threat (where the prospect of conforming to a stereotype, or of being treated in terms of it, becomes self-threatening) affects members of social groups about whom devaluing stereotypes exist. Although a widely endorsed stereotype of schizophrenia concerns social skill impairment, it is unclear whether the experience of stereotype threat impacts social functioning in this group. The purpose of the present study was to test whether people with schizophrenia would perform more poorly in a social setting in which they felt stereotyped as mentally ill. Methods. Thirty individuals with schizophrenia engaged in conversations with two confederates, one of whom they were told knew nothing about them (control conversation), and the other of whom they were told had been informed of their diagnosis (stereotype threat conversation). In reality, neither confederate had been informed of participants' mental health status. Results. Although participants with schizophrenia did not perceive any differences in their own social behaviour across the two conditions, their social skill was rated by the confederates as poorer in the stereotype threat conversation on three out of the six measures used. Conclusions. These results suggest that social skill difficulties in people with schizophrenia may be exacerbated by their awareness that others know of their diagnosis. These findings have implications for disclosure of mental health status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Stereotype threat, or the belief that one may be the target of demeaning stereotypes, leads to performance disruptions in a variety of domains. Two experiments conducted in a driving simulator demonstrate that stereotype threat also disrupts control of an automobile. Women who were reminded of the stereotype that females are poor drivers were more than twice as likely to collide with jaywalking pedestrians than women who were not reminded of this stereotype. Experiment 2 also revealed that the magnitude of this effect was equivalent to that produced by a secondary task, suggesting that stereotype threat might diminish driving performance via a disruptive mental load. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Four experiments tested the hypothesis that people who are concerned with impression management cope with stereotype threat through denial. Consistent with this hypothesis, temporary employees threatened by a stereotype of incompetence (Study 1) and hostel-dwelling older adults (Study 2) were more likely to deny incompetence if they were high in impression management. African Americans (Study 3) showed a similar pattern of denying cognitive incompetence, which emerged primarily when they were interviewed by a White experimenter and had attended a predominantly Black high school. In Study 4, White students who expected to take an IQ test and were threatened by a stereotype of being less intelligent than Asians were more likely to deny that intelligence is important if they were high in impression management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]