How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do (Issues of Our Time)

Very interesting and the side stories are very interesting. It addresses some very pressing points in stereotyping and has a very strong basis in what it discusses. Really good read if you like research and theory essays, also good if you like intellectual casual reading.

Not to stereotype a book... but the book reads pretty much like you would expect a book about stereotyping to read. The examples were rather predictable and none of the findings were all that earth shattering. This book is being used as a summer reading for a dual enrollment class (Comp 1 & 2). As the teacher, I find the book relatively interesting, But I do not think that high school seniors will. The book focuses so much on women and math; I would have liked to see the author expand that into other subject areas.

This book had a lot of great insights and information, but it was a bit wordy in some places. A bit research-heavy in some places. Definitely a theory read, vs. a practical applications read, though practical advice is given in the text.

This book offers a very accessible window into recent research in social psychology that offers a compelling explanation as to why there are so few women in computer science as well as strategies for addressing the problem.

I teach at a University and have long been puzzled by why seemingly well prepared students of color and women fail to succeed in science. This book certainly opened my eyes to possibilities that I never considered and has changed the way I approach teaching science.

Not terrible, but not worth buying unless it is a class assignment. The author presents some interesting hypotheses, and then states that he has proved them. Yet there are several alternative explanations for his findings. He really does not give the reader much support for his "proof". This might be an editorial decision on the part of the publisher, since the writing was repetitive as it was. I felt that the book could have been effectively summarized in 10-15 pages. The ideas were worthwhile, but similar material is widely available on the Internet for free. Not worth buying for more than a buck or two, so it is overpriced right now on the store for the casual reader.

Women worry about the stereotype that men are better at math. African-Americans worry about the stereotype of lesser academic achievement. Whites worry about the stereotype of lesser athletic ability, or that Asians are better at math. Men going into an empathetic profession worry about stereotypes of lesser empathy. And so on. Social psycologist Claude Steele calls these stereotype threats, and just the anxiety they create can severely impede performance, as confirmed in a truckload of social experiments.

"There is truly inspirational news here: evidence that often small, feasible things done to reduce these threats in schools and classrooms can dramatically reduce the racial and gender achievement gaps that so discouragingly characterize our society."

I found this book fascinating. It discloses truths that get lost under unreasoning emotion, provides insights I never would have thought of, and demonstrates the healthy effects of the "small, feasible things" he mentions. It deserves widespread attention.

Something as simple as reminding "test takers of identities that counter the relevant stereotype" before a test has been shown to have a positive, measurable impact on test results. The one requisite: the person must care about his/her performance. Anxiety over stereotype threats actually activates non-performing parts of the brain - it literally causes the brain to use its capabilities in a non-productive way. And we'll virtually all claim, and believe, that we're not experiencing that anxiety when, in fact, we demonstrably are.

Counseling in certain ways can cause dramatic change; expressing company policy in certain ways can make even a non-diverse company attractive to diverse candidates. Whites who are unconsciously chary of discussing racial issues with blacks become more open (and physically move their chairs closer!) when the exchange is framed as a learning experience. (Other positive framing cues didn't work, but that did).

This is an important book, and it's heartening that the studies described are being conducted all over the world, with results continuing to confirm the insights and productive strategies described by Claude Steele.

I read Whistling Vivaldi by Claude M. Steele for my First Year Seminar class which is looking at identity and how it changes how you interact with the world. This book focuses on something called stereotype threat which means that when someone feels like they are threatened with the ability to confirm a stereotype about themselves they do worse than their potential because it gives them unconscious anxiety. The psychologists looked at many different scenarios based on race and gender and found out a lot about stereotype threat, and they have also started to look at ways to alleviate stereotype threat. This book was very interesting but I did not like the writing style, it was very thorough sometimes to the point of being too repetitive. This book is very interesting and I would recommend reading it if you are interested in psychology, and it does make it better to have someone to discuss it with.

This book approached stereotypes from a new perspective. With an advanced degree in psychology, Steele takes readers on a narrative tour of his research into identity threatens stereotype bias that provides insights into underperformance and general difference in outcomes based on identity. Steele challenges the American interest in treating each person as an individual and proposes that our identities effect the way we move through the world and the pressure we feel based on stereotypes that surround the identities we hold.

Steele’s research provides new understanding of how race affects each of us in the 21st century. Although not the sole purpose of his research and findings around identity threat, race does play a big role in his research, importantly so as the term “post racial society” gets thrown around quite a bit, a point that Steele focuses in on in his final chapters. However, Steele makes clear that this research can be extrapolated to any identity that we hold depending on the situation that we are in, particularly anytime we are situationally a minority talking about a topic that draws on stereotypes of our group.

This book was well written to be read by anyone. Whether you believe in “post racial” America or you experience racial tension every day, this book will have something new to offer you. The research was straight forward, making it difficult to deny the results. I felt enlightened and understood completely, and I hope others will find similar solace. Steele writes about women’s experiences and various racial experiences that lead to a well balanced focus on race while maintaining that stereotype threat can happen to anyone who belongs to an identity group when they are in a situation that brings forward stereotypes about that group. I would encourage everyone to read this book and think about what makes you tick. Why do you act and react in certain ways? Self awareness, while often encouraged, is rarely backed up by research that is both validating and eye-opening, at least for me. Steele provides readers with a method of talking about things that we experience often through his research and discussion thereof.

Interesting. But sweeping generalizations at times. If all this is true, why doesnt every educatir do these things and cure the achievement gap. Needed more discussion chapters like the last one. Maybe one that addresses critics concerns.

"Whistling Vivaldi," a new study of cultural stereotypes by Claude M. Steele, is a surprising book. Within its pages, the highly thought-of social psychologist shows us how, even in the absence of explicit racism, negative stereotypes can continue to pervade American life, and have far-reaching influences on our behavior. Before writing it, Steele did more than two decades of systematic research of minority student performance, as well as a wide range of experiments on other situations where stereotypes can come into play. He also cites, in the book, many other experiments in social psychology that explored this and related subjects: many of which he apparently inspired.

Within these pages, Steele reveals the powerful, hidden "stereotype threat" that can lie within most competitive situations. He defines it as the great, but invisible pressure created by our fear of confirming negative cultural stereotypes about ourselves. He shows how it can affect white men racing against blacks, or playing basketball against them, when blacks are thought to be fleeter of foot. It can also affect white men competing against Asians in university settings. It can also be shown to affect highly-achieving women studying mathematics or sciences, who have internalized our culture's belief that women are naturally inferior to men in these areas. He also shows that it affects higher-ranking black students in our nation's elite colleges, and even its better-ranking high schools. And he proves that, while you might think the poorer performance of black students in these situations is due to racism, or to the `usual suspects' often cited in discussions of poorly-achieving black and other minority students: broken families, lack of good role models, a background suffused with violence that denigrates education, their poor achievements can be shown to be due, also, to stereotype threat.

Steele was appointed provost of Columbia University in 2009. He had been teaching at Stanford University since 1991; while there he served both as chair of the psychology department and as director of Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He has also taught at the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, and the University of Utah. He earned his doctorate in social psychology from Ohio State University, and holds honorary doctorates from Princeton, Yale, and the University of Chicago.

"Whistling Vivaldi," however, goes beyond merely identifying and proving the problem of "stereotype threat." Yet it is written in easy to follow English, rather than dense academica, and is a fast, and not difficult, read. Its author shows that interventions are possible in this negative process that can show positive results for years, maybe even entire college careers. And these interventions are neither costly, nor difficult, to implement. Let's hope the book reaches, and influences, the audience it deserves.

The concept behind which this book is written is an interesting one but I question it's validity. From my perspective, it seems to rationalize feelings of victimhood in minority groups without any care taken to address the root cause of such feelings or even attempting to dispel some of those notions. The book itself is well written but its conclusions are dubious at best, hence the poor review.

"Whistling Vivaldi" means performing an action in an attempt to deflect a stereotype. It is a coined phrase by Steele that references a story of a black man walking in Hyde Park, noticing that the color of his skin is making other people nervous, starts whistling Vivaldi, and so disarms the residents.

Revealing insights are here from an elected member of the National Academy of Science. We all know what stereotypes are, but how do they affect us on an unconscious level? How can they be mitigated on a personal level? How can they be rectified on the group level? The answers and the directions to those answers from the latest experiments are here.

By their nature, steroetypes are upheld by the society at large, and that they affect the actions of the individual citizen. This is proven by showing that other countries have different or certain absent stereotypes, and the individual outcomes are quite different.

Also, stereotypes don't have to have 'any' basis in actuality, but become a reality by agreement. So the steps out of the pitfalls of stereotypes have to do with changing agreement.

On a personal level this can be done by first of all knowing that when someone knows you better, they judge you much less on the stereotype crutch way of thinking. We can find role models who have succeeded against all stereotypical injunction to do otherwise, but that share our stereotype. We can change our personal definition of our ability from as being a 'fixed amount' in us, to one that can get incrementally better.

On a group level, we can foster diversity. As far as racial diversity goes, just seeing that a group has various successful members from different racial backgrounds is enough to offset some of the negative tension of stereotyping.

On any level, re-framing the task, test or paradigm is key. Just by labeling an activity as being bested by intellectuals, athletes, mathematicians, skinny people, young, old, the poor or wealthy, performance is enhanced or diminished.

On a counterintuitive note, Steele suggests that someone who is at war with their ingrained inner stereotypes may just be the activists in our society who are trying to couteract them. Someone without the inner racial stereotype dilemma may not have the passion to do the same.

I found this book helpful, current, relevant and on target.

On a personal note I am thinking that if we identified ourselves more so as spiritual beings who have a body, rather than are the body (with its attendant stereotypes) which has a soul (or not), we might hold fewer stereotypes and be affected by them to a lesser degree. It might be a more effective paradigm.

Great book, other very good reviews here on the actual experiments so no need for duplication.

Five Stars

As a white man working around Asia, places like China, Korea and Japan, and wishing to stay here, I absolutely have to deal with the issue of race and stereotype. What may seem trivial now, as a single caucasian man, may at some point (eg. getting married, raising biracial children) become an issue for me and my family. And for anyone not living in Asia, there are class and racial divisions all over the world, as students and co-workers form cliques along predictable lines.

I remember in University, taking an Intermediate Mandarin class, where all the different ethnic and social groups would-unknowingly- cluster together perfectly: there were the white kids, the Chinese born Canadians, the Hong Kong kids, the Bi-racial kids, the Koreans, and some Philippinos. It was only several weeks into the class that I noticed these convenient groupings (I had done the exact same with my white friends). Were we racist? Were we trying to reject the other classmembers (and the Chinese teacher!)? Not at all. We enjoyed the arrangement, subconscious though it may have been.

But I do remember another class I took (briefly). It was an Asian studies course. There was one other white person in the class (phew!), and the goal of the class was to research the rich Asian influences in our community. This was a heavy course, and considered high-end credit, meaning very intensive projects. I was almost certain to be working later in Asia (that's why I signed up in the first place), but I felt like I shouldn't be there, and I felt like a fraud, that my research would be scrutinized, and my `findings' would be immediately dismissed, as they were coming from a Caucasian student. The professor and the other students couldn't have been more open and kind, but it wasn't them I was responding to, it was something else. It was a subtle pang of anxiety I felt in the class, which led me to dropping the class before the end of the second week. Admittedly, I justified it by predicting academic demise, and felt sorry for the other white student who must be going through panic attacks in that class.Years later, I wonder if he ever finished the course, or politely dropped out after I did.

Make no mistake, my goal in reviewing this book was to identify techniques to alleviate, overcome, and adapt to living in foreign countries where I feel (and expect to feel) stereotypes and discrimination. So what are people really afraid of? What is this anxiety I keep mentioning. Are my Shanghainese neighbours afraid of me? Are whites in the US really afraid of Black people? In many cases, not even slightly. What I'm talking about are nice, friendly, ambitious, successful, otherwise, well-rounded people who still feel uncomfortable around certain groups-certain races, certain genders, certain cliques. Some of the research in this book brings forward a fascinating concept: people are generally agitated by what has been dubbed "stereotype threat".

Stereotype threat means whenever you (either because you're black, or a woman, or a Lakers fan, or a Snowboarder) are in a position of being stereotyped in a negative way, you subconsciously feel this threat. In response to this threat, you subconsciously try to overcome the stereotype. So a female student taking high-level Computer Science at Harvard, will likely feel this threat (the stereotype being that women are not as good as men at math/science/computers), and it will distract them. The instinctual response is to work even harder, thus, bringing their test scores down slightly, and reinforcing the stereotype.

How do we know this is happening? Tests on various forms of stereotype threat revealed that many `threatened' students experienced higher blood pressure levels when they were under this threat, even though the students, when asked, did not report physically feeling any nervousness, or stress at all. This is totally subconscious. But the brain treats it as multitasking: not only are you focusing on this math problem, but you have to simultaneously have an internal dialogue about whether or not you even belong in this classroom. Note: this has been tested at the very best colleges in the United States (and in the poorest communities as well), and has been shown time and time again. It doesn't matter how `good' the students are, their grades take a hit whenever they're under this threat. It's shocking how clear the lines are.

And what about social situations? Well let's examine racism (since its a much bigger problem for blacks in the US, than it is for whites in, say, China). First of all, why does Racism or any other kind of discrimination exist? This one is pretty easy: because we as people come in all shapes and sizes and from myriad backgrounds, and harbour a generalized sense of insecurity that is alleviated somewhat when we meet someone who is like us in some way (what a mouthful!). Why are we insecure? Because we're human. We all have flaws; we either go crazy trying to eliminate them (perfectionism) or we learn live with it.

When someone who comes from our hometown (we see a guy with Boston Redsox cap) we feel more at ease when we're around him. There are thousands of different ways we can `classify' ourselves, and thus thousands of ways we can relate to other people to get this `insecurity relief'. But what's the ugly flipside? Thousands of ways we can separate ourselves from others. Just go online and see Windows and Mac users fighting-fighting-because of what kind of OS their computer runs. Fans of rival sports teams hate each other, and (sadly) in the midst of a heated game, will ever go to blows, which usually ends up with a trip to the hospital. Just ask soccer fans in the UK (or South America, etc). It follows that the more insecure you are about yourself, the more you're going to cling to these groups of `security'...you hate Windows users, you hate Manchester United fans, you hate the Toronto Maple Leafs. And so on. The hatred here comes from mistakenly associating anyone who is not rooting for your favourite team as somehow being against you-somehow threatening you.

So, in the case of the US, most white people don't feel much of anything, good or bad, about African Americans, but there's a few very fragile insecure white people that are totally freaked, and say lots of crazy things about black people. Interestingly, for some African Americans, the answer is not to move away from white people, but moving to a different set of white people. Like the French.

Whereas Black people in the United States have had to read about years and years of racism, and slavery, and racial violence, often from authority figures, what do many French people think of when you say "Black man"? Jazz music. That's right, right now there is a vibrant community of black people, formerly American, in Paris who, whenever they meet someone new, are delighted to be `stereotyped' as having a wonderful taste in music. Blacks in Paris have noted basically no anxiety when commuting to work, no feelings of discomfort- the stereotype threat is nowhere to be found (unless they want to visit the US for the holidays).

Is this just a black thing? No way. How would you like to be a white guy trying out for a Varsity Basketball team, with mostly black players (or Track and Field, or Football, etc). There's the stereotype staring him right in the face. And what does he do? He multitasks. The whole time he's running the floor, not only is trying to see the floor, he's avoiding getting the ball stolen, and in the back of his mind, the internal dialogue is debating whether or not he even deserves to be in this gym in the first place (just like women in Computer Science tests). His mind blanks, the ball is stolen, and three seconds later, he watches his black opponent soaring for a windmill dunk. Time to hit the showers. You think he made the team?

So it doesn't really matter what race you are, or what city you came from, there's a stereotype out there with your name on it. I suppose as a white person, I must confess, being stereotyped as bad at basketball (but great at Hockey?) is not the end of the world. Most white guys are resigned to the fact that they won't play in the NBA. But to be stereotyped as academically inferior (as many blacks in this world are) is another thing entirely. Not to be an elitist, but I don't consider a University degree to be an impossible dream. In todays workforce, getting a college education is practically a necessity (whether you're an electrician or a lawyer, its an education). Even with a college degree, the job market is extremely competitive. For many blacks, the moment they set foot in a highschool classroom, they feel the discomfort. College, where whites enter and exit without a hint of anxiety, surely the stereotype threat is even stronger. Consider the ramifications of this self-perpetuating stereotype, and how crucially important it is to understand it and overcome it.

If you want to get into this, definitely pick up the book, it's excellent. Steele has been a professor at some of the most prestigious Universities in the United States, his research is very thorough, and brilliantly written. He does list several ways to break down these stereotypes, but I want to focus on just one.

Studies have shown that many Black college students try to overcome the stereotype threat by `overworking': rather than get into groups and tackle math problems with their friends, they go back to their rooms, shut the door, and spend hours trying to figure stuff out on their own. They are essentially subconsciously saying to the `stereotype threat' "I'll show you, I don't need any stinkin help, I can figure this out on my own." Meanwhile, Asian students get into groups, and have long group study sessions. Asian students often revolve their social lives around studying (alas, I've bumped into another stereotype!), and get much higher grades, not struggling with arithmetic, but the bigger picture meaning behind the material.

When students of various backgrounds were instructed to meet and discuss campus life (eg. a mixed group), an amazing thing happened. While the whites experienced no change in grades (since they aren't negatively stereotyped in Academics), the Blacks experienced a big jump in their grades. Why? Because they were delighted to find out that whites were experiencing the same `mistreatment' from the teachers as they were! Without anyone to tell them otherwise, blacks developed the instinct that `I'm being treated this way because of the color of my skin', when if fact, Freshmen in college are generally treated like dirt, because they're Freshmen. I remember being told that I didn't know anything, and my ideas were stupid (by the head of the Economics dept. no less, ouch!), but I didn't associate that with racism. Can you imagine the crippling effect that comment would have had on a black student's psyche if he thought the head of the department was a racist?

Having an integrated dialogue is one huge way to get over the stereotype threat, and being here in China, I can tell you, you're probably not going to get much of a conversation going with a bunch of locals, if you don't speak Fluent Chinese. Think about it: without speaking Mandarin, I'm like the black guy who only checks with his black friends to verify if there's any `racism' going on. If I just ask Expats, they'll all confirm to me that, Chinese people think this way, and the best way to deal with it is like this, etc. And while there are lots of Chinese that speak English here in Shanghai, all I have to do is take a job in Hangzhou, or Chongqing, and the anxiety is back. So in a roundabout way, languages play a hugely important role here, not only in China, but Korea, Japan, and many other countries where English is just not that popular. If you don't get this dialogue going, you're only listening to the insecure voice in your head telling you to hunker down, and fight, fight, fight. Go Apple/Manchester/China/Blue Eyed People! ;)

More Reviews like this at [...]

After taking several doctoral level courses in psychology, conducting my own research and reading widely, I wondered what could be new and exciting about the psychology of stereotypes. Previous researchers have emphasized cognitive aspects of stereotyping, e.g., the fact that we are "cognitive misers" who look for shortcuts to save effort in our thinking.

I hadn't heard of the phenomenon of "stereotype threat," but it's a real breakthrough in research. For example, when you increase awareness of gender, women will achieve lesser outcomes on math tests. Stereotype threat can be enhanced simply by asking people to write down their gender before taking a test. It's especially powerful when an environment is saturated with cues that signal, "You're an outsider."

This book will appeal to three audiences.

First, many readers simply enjoy reading about psychology. If you liked Blink, you'll probably like this book. Steele's book emphasizes academic experiences rather than everyday experiences. However, he doesn't write like an academic and I found the book totally engaging and hard to put down.

Second, university administrators can apply many lessons from this book. Steele identified and tested a number of interventions to counter the stereotype effect.

Finally, I'd recommend this book to psychology majors as an introduction to research. Many people think research is dull and dry, yet in fact research can be enjoyable as well as rewarding.

As we all know, it's easier to study students than any other population. I can't help wishing we would see research in other contexts. For example, many jurisdictions treat the over-60 or over-65 population differently - everything from extra requirements for driving tests to passes on public transportation. If you have to see a bus pass labeled "senior" every time you go downtown, your age becomes especially salient. What's interesting about age is that many people - even employers - are comfortable making statements about "older people," while they'd never think - let alone say aloud - negative comments based on race, gender, or ethnicity.

I also wonder if people are affected differently by external cues. For instance, low self-monitors and mavericks may be less concerned with conforming. I'd also wonder if exposure to a protected environment acts as an inoculation against future threats or leads to greater vulnerability. For instance, all-female colleges or predominantly African-American colleges should encourage high performance among their students, who would not experience a threatened identity as undergraduates. Are these students at a disadvantage or an advantage as they move to careers and graduate schools?

A stimulating and provocative book that deserves a wider audience.

Given that about half of the book is an explaination of the research done to prove Steele's point - and therefore kind of slow, it's pretty amazing that I would consider this a must-read for any educator who works with students of color. I reference this book all the time when working with my teaching staff and I'm trying to get all of them to read some of the most important chapters. Steele's writing is accessible and pointed. Highly recommended!

Besides the amazing research on stereotypes and how they impact performance, I was simply blown away by the concept of a Black man Whistling Vivaldi to counter the ill effects of what it meant to be a Black man, walking home at night, in the presence of White people. By whistling a classical "white" tune, a black man was able to broadcast a universal signal to everyone that he was a "safe" black man, not the "normal" dangerous black man that walks the street at night looking to rape, steal, and ravage all that you all!!! Oh nooo!!! - A general negative stereotype held and/or know by White people and Black people. .

This thought made me begin to think about how often we are ALL impacted by negative stereotypes, because we all hold an identity (externally or internally) that has some type of negative stereotype associated with it; blacks, teens, gays, males, latinos, female, wear glasses, Asian, blonde, tall,...

To know how stereotypes affect you and what YOU do to counter the ill affects could be life altering. I strongly recommend this book for anyone and everyone who strives for optimum health!

Whistling Vivaldi is yet more evidence that we respond unconsciously to cues in our environment. Claude M Steele provides many detailed examples of how positive and negative stereotypes not only influence perceptions of performance from an observer's perspective; they also influence actual performance from the performer's perspective.
If you are asked to complete a maths test and at the beginning of the test you are asked to identify yourself as a Male, Female, Caucasian, African American, Asian etc. your answers to these questions will affect how well you do in the test. Astonishing? You bet!

Amazing book that helped to highlight some of the nuances around stereotypes. Dealing with stereotypes threats and associated contingencies by providing the safe environment allows different groups to appreciate differences as opposed to being color blind

Steele starts with a seemingly implausible hypothesis -- the psychic cost of anxiety of being a marginalized person -- results in systemic underperformance by the marginalized thus 'confirming' in some sense society's prejudices. Steele's outlines a career of social science research that generalized this observation, and brought it into better focus using ingeniously designed experiments. The most interesting part of the book is that he discusses how teachers or just anyone can improve their interactions and even be helpful to people who have difficulty realizing their full potential because of the performance anxiety associated with being a member of a group expected to fail in a certain type of endeavor.