POSITIVE STEREOTYPE THREAT IN SOCIAL GROUPS: Science Fiction Fans and the Role of Positive Stereotype Threat on Performance

This work examined stereotype threat within social groups and whether stereotype threat would be seen with a positive stereotype. Stereotype threat is usually seen as a decrease in performance induced by an anxiety within individuals fearing they will confirm a pre-existing and culturally-known negative stereotype. Science fiction fans were compared to a matched sample of college students. Both groups were given a 50-item problem-solving task described as an intelligence test. Individuals were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (1) no threat condition, (2) general threat condition, participants were told that people are underperforming, or (3) specific threat condition where participants were told that science fiction fans were underperforming. It was hypothesized that members of the social group science fiction fans would be affected by a stereotype threat effect and, therefore, underperform compared to non-members on the task in the specific threat condition. This work aimed to generalize stereotype threat to non- academic situations within socially-constructed groups and to positive stereotypes. The results did not support the hypotheses.