Collaborative Research: Identity, Stereotypes and Black College Student Success

本研究将深入探讨黑人大学生对刻板印象威胁脆弱性的异质性，以及激励措施如何减轻刻板印象威胁的影响。当一个社会群体的成员，在特定的情况下，感到自己有确认对他们群体的负面刻板印象的风险，因此表现不佳，特别是在重要或困难的任务上，刻板印象威胁就会发生。该研究将通过确定导致或减轻刻板印象威胁的因素以及刻板印象威胁脆弱性的后果，并制定旨在消除其对黑人大学生影响的政策，从而有助于了解刻板印象威胁。它解决了当今人力资本投资研究中最重要的问题之一，即为什么黑人学生表现不佳，因此更有可能无法完成大学学位。在这个提议中，主要研究者计划进行一系列的实验室实验研究，以探索刻板印象威胁与两种激励之间的相互作用：计件工资和奖励。本项目将探索可能导致刻板印象威胁脆弱性差异的一系列关键因素之间的关系，并仔细探索激励机制及其与刻板印象威胁的相互作用的影响。该提案具有很高的政策相关性，因为它可以为干预措施的发展提供信息，以提高在不同人口分布的机构入学的黑人学生的表现。

The proposed studies will explore, in depth, heterogeneity in the vulnerability of black college students to stereotype threat, and the way in which incentives can mitigate the impact of the threat. Stereotype threat occurs when members of a social group, in a given situation, feel themselves to be at risk of confirming a negative stereotype about their group and therefore perform less well, especially on important or difficult tasks. The study will contribute to knowledge about stereotype threat by identifying factors that contribute to or mitigate the threat and the consequences of stereotype threat vulnerability, and by developing a policy designed to combat its effects on black college students. It addresses one of the most important questions in the study of human capital investment today, which is why black students underperform and as a result are more likely to fail to complete a college degree. In this proposal the principal investigators plan a series of lab experimental studies that will explore the interaction between stereotype threat and two types of incentives: piece rates and prizes. The project will explore the relationship among a set of key factors that are likely to be responsible for the differences in vulnerability to stereotype threat, and carefully explore the impact of incentives and their interaction with stereotype threat. The proposal has high policy relevance because it can inform the development of interventions to enhance the performance of black students enrolled at institutions with varying demographic distributions.