Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Status and Performance on Mental Ability Tests

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SES-1029741Barry MarkovskyJennifer McLeerUniversity of South CarolinaPrevious findings have shown that intelligence test scores of members of disadvantaged groups are negatively affected by their relative status in test situations. We explain this by assuming that lower-status actors forego benefits that normally follow from successful performance of a task if they anticipate that there are also social costs associated with success. We use an integration of Status Characteristics Theory, Rational Choice Theory and Prospect Theory to argue that low status actors that associate higher costs with high performance will perform worse than those who expect lower costs with high performance. Such underperformance may be due to any of three factors: (1) dissonance reduction, (2) fear of sanctions from other low status actors, or (3) fear of sanctions from high status actors. The co-investigator will test these ideas using three experiments conducted at the Laboratory for Sociological Research at the University of South Carolina. The first study tests whether or not test-takers scores are affected by the above factors. The second study tests these ideas using a different method: direct manipulation of costs and rewards associated with performance. The third study extends the findings of the other two by testing to see if social costs drive test underperformance for minority group members in same-race and mixed-race settings.Broader Impacts This research contributes to a cross-disciplinary body of literature concerning group differences and test scores. Therefore, research findings will be relevant in diverse fields such as psychology, education, and economics. Additionally, the use of undergraduate assistants and subjects allows for a new generation of potential scholars to be trained in the use of experimental methods for social scientific research. As for future applications, understanding how perceptions of social rewards and costs affect intelligence test performances is important for efforts to intervene in naturally-occurring status processes. If perception of status-related rewards and costs underlie educational performance and achievement, then interventions that combat these perceptions can level the playing field for students from different backgrounds. More concretely, findings from this research may be applied to educational settings to help eliminate the achievement gap, not only in mental ability test scores, but also in daily classroom activities.