Page "Stereotype threat" Paragraph 28

A third type of intervention involves having participants engage in self-affirmation, which is a process in which participants write about a value that is important to them.

In 2006, researchers Geoffrey L. Cohen, Julio Garcia, Nancy Apfel, and Allison Master found that a self-affirmation exercise ( in the form of a brief in-class writing assignment ) significantly improved the grades of African-American middle-school students, and reduced the racial achievement gap by 40 %.

Cohen et al.

have suggested that the racial achievement gap could be at least partially ameliorated by brief and targeted social-psychological interventions.

One such intervention was attempted with UK medical students, who were given a written assignment and a clinical assessment.

For the written assignment group, white students performed worse than minority students.

For the clinical assessment, both groups improved their performance maintaining the racial difference.

Allowing participants to think about a positive value or attribute about themselves prior to completing the task, seemed to make them less susceptible to stereotype threat.