While Steele acknowledges that canceling out stereotypes is a difficult process, he does offer some possibilities for doing so that might be more practical in a real-world setting. In general-and as Steele himself would be the first to admit-some of the measures that Steele uses to neutralize stereotyping and improve performance are too particular and impractical to be used to fight stereotyping in society in general. For example, the primary reason that the black students in Steele’s experiment avoided stereotype threats was that the test proctor lied to them about the nature of the test they were about to take (it did, in fact, measure cognitive ability). While some of Steele’s measures for neutralizing the threat of stereotypes can be useful in a test-taking environment, it can be difficult to understand how Steele would apply these measures to the real, non-“controlled” world. In other words, the test proctor’s verbal cues neutralized any anxiety the students had about taking a test of intelligence-which could have (and did, in the experiment’s control group) impaired their performance on the test. For example, Steele found that assuring black test-takers that their exam didn’t measure their cognitive aptitude caused them to do better on the test. To minimize the impact of negative cues, Steele argues, people can add positive cues that calm people from marginalized groups. Something as minor as a joke, a cartoon, or a seemingly neutral statement can, under the right circumstances, elicit anxiety and doubt in people from a marginalized group, particularly if a large number of these environmental cues arrive at the same time. Steele argues that almost any environment, whether it’s a classroom or a subway, is bound to have some features that provoke stigmatization and the fear of being stereotyped. The solutions that Steele recommends are centered around the same idea: stereotype cues can’t be eliminated entirely, but they can be minimized or canceled out. He also goes on to recommend some of the ways that teachers, parents, and policymakers might fight the influence of stereotyping. In Whistling Vivaldi, Claude Steele doesn’t just diagnose the problems of stereotyping.
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