Questioning Stereotypes Disrupts the Effects of Stereotype Threat

Given that mentally activating negative stereotypes about our social groups impairs our performance, can questioning the stereotype effectively disrupt this phenomenon? We experimentally tested an intervention of this type in several samples of athletes. Performance was consistently much improved, both in statistical and in practical terms, when participants were encouraged to question the stereotype than when they were merely reminded of the stereotype. These effects held regardless of the content of the stereotype and the group targeted. Process evidence suggests that questioning the stereotype buffers performance primarily via affect: the intervention stops athletes from worrying. Taken together, these findings indicate that adopting a simple yet powerful questioning stance protects targets of stereotypes against the performance impairments that they would otherwise typically experience.