Multiple studies have demonstrated minorities and women score lower on standardized tests. A researcher, Claude Steele, sought to understand this gap. He first administered a standardized test to women under typical test conditions: white lab-coated test proctors presented an "intelligence test" with minimal further interaction. The previously identified lower scores were repeated. Then, he had the test proctor present the test with the following statement, "You may have heard that women perform more poorly on standardized tests, but that is not true for this particular test, never has been, never will be." The performance gap completely vanished. He repeated the study, with various opening statements, changing the expectation of what the test was measuring. Words like "test" and "intelligence" were removed. That is all it took to remove the performance gaps for minorities and women.
One factor is crucial to elicit this performance gap. The test had to be challenging. Only then does the performance gap rear its ugly head. Why would the difficulty of the test matter? For easy test questions, the performance was the same. It is only when the questions became more challenging that doubt would creep into the test-takers thoughts, "maybe it's true, maybe I am really not that smart, maybe what they say about me is true." The added challenge opened the door for self-defeating thoughts to enter, resulting in the performance gap.
These self-defeating thoughts can only impair our abilities when they can acquire a foothold. Frequently, these thought patterns are laid down very early in life. Over time, we may reinforce these thoughts when evidence appears to support our limitations and not our strengths. We fall into a self-confirming bias that filters out evidence to the contrary of these thought distortions. Mindfulness offers an opportunity to observe our unfolding thoughts and reality test their validity, rather than blindly accept them. In essence, a self-defeating thought is no different than any other thought, until we allow ourselves to believe it.
The Obama Effect, Perhaps.
Tags:
performance, thoughts
0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
