Collaborative Research: Identity, Stereotypes and Black College Student Success

拟议的研究将深入探索黑人大学生对刻板印象威胁的脆弱性的异质性，以及激励措施如何减轻威胁的影响。刻板印象威胁是指一个社会群体的成员在特定情况下，认为自己有可能确认对其群体的负面刻板印象，因此表现不佳，特别是在重要或困难的任务上。这项研究将通过确定导致或减轻刻板印象威胁的因素和刻板印象威胁脆弱性的后果，并通过制定旨在对抗其对黑人大学生的影响的政策，来帮助了解刻板印象威胁。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。在这项提案中，主要研究人员计划进行一系列实验室实验研究，以探索刻板印象威胁和两种激励机制之间的相互作用：计件工资和奖品。该项目将探讨可能导致陈规定型威胁脆弱性差异的一系列关键因素之间的关系，并仔细探讨激励措施的影响及其与陈规定型威胁的相互作用。该提案具有很高的政策相关性，因为它可以为制定干预措施提供信息，以提高在人口分布各不相同的机构招收的黑人学生的表现。

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.