description Claude Steele Overview
Claude M. Steele is an American social psychologist known for research on identity, self-evaluation, and stereotype threat. With Joshua Aronson, he showed that situations making a negative group stereotype salient can impair the performance of people targeted by that stereotype, even without overt prejudice from an evaluator. The research has influenced studies of educational inequality, testing environments, belonging, and interventions intended to reduce identity-based pressure.
help Claude Steele FAQ
What is stereotype threat in Claude Steele's research?
Stereotype threat is the situational pressure created when people risk confirming a negative stereotype about one of their groups. Steele and Joshua Aronson showed that making racial stereotypes relevant could impair Black students' performance on a difficult verbal test.
Does stereotype threat mean people believe the stereotype?
No, a person can reject a stereotype and still worry that others may judge their performance through it. The threat is often strongest when the person cares about succeeding in the tested domain.
What is Claude Steele's self-affirmation theory?
Self-affirmation theory proposes that people defend an overall sense of integrity when information threatens an important part of the self. Reflecting on another valued identity or principle can sometimes reduce defensiveness toward the immediate threat.
How is Claude Steele related to Shelby Steele?
Claude Steele and writer Shelby Steele are identical twin brothers. Their careers developed in different fields, with Claude becoming a social psychologist and Shelby becoming an author and political commentator.
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