Preserving positive identities: Public and private regard for one's ingroup and susceptibility to stereotype threat

Abstract

The current study examines the effect of racial regard—feelings of positivity or negativity toward African Americans—on stereotype threat. Forty participants at Harvard University responded to questions concerning their social attitudes and returned later to take a difficult verbal test. This study replicated the well-established stereotype threat effect, and found evidence that both public regard (judgments concerning how others view Blacks) and private regard (how one views Blacks and feels about being Black) moderate the effect. Specifically, Blacks high in public regard and high in private regard appear more susceptible to stereotype threat effects. The article discusses the possibility that African Americans in our study face an additional cognitive burden when confronted with the need to preserve a positive identity.