Stereotype threat is the self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated on the basis of a negative stereotype about one’s group. The anxiety and cognitive burden that accompany the concern can impair performance.

Claude Steele and colleagues demonstrated that African American students performed worse on a difficult verbal test when it was described as diagnostic of ability than when the same test was described as nondiagnostic. Similar effects have been shown for women in mathematics, older adults in memory tasks, and other groups targeted by negative stereotypes. The threat need not be explicit; subtle cues that make the stereotype salient are often sufficient.

Mechanisms include heightened anxiety, reduced working-memory capacity, and over-effort or under-effort. Interventions that reframe the task, emphasize growth, or provide role models can reduce the effect. Stereotype threat helps explain group differences in performance that shrink or disappear when the evaluative pressure linked to the stereotype is removed.

The fear of confirming a negative stereotype can itself produce the underperformance the stereotype predicts.