Dealing With Negative Stereotypes in Sports: The Role of Cognitive Anxiety When Multiple Identities Are Activated in Sensorimotor Tasks

Abstract

LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website.This document is the author's final accepted version of the journal article. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. Based on research on stereotype threat and multiple identities, this work explores the beneficial effects of activating a positive social identity when a negative identity is salient on women's performance in sports. Further, in line with research on the effects of anxiety in sports, we investigate whether the activation of a positive social identity buffers performance from cognitive anxiety associated with a negative stereotype. Two experiments tested these predictions in field settings. Experiment 1 (N = 83) shows that the simultaneous activation of a positive (i.e., member of a soccer team) and a negative social identity (i.e., woman) led to better performance than the activation of only a negative social identity for female soccer players. Experiment 2 (N = 46) demonstrates that identity condition moderated the effect of cognitive anxiety on performance for female basketball players. Results are discussed concerning multiple identities' potential for dealing with stressful situations. STEREOTYPE THREAT AND MULTIPLE IDENTITIES IN SPORTS Word count abstract: 148Word count text: 7654 . In the present work we extend previous research by combining theories on stereotype threat and multiple social identities to predict outcomes in sensorimotor tasks. We investigate the consequences of the simultaneous activation of multiple social identities compared to the activation of only one (negative) social identity on females' performance in complex sensorimotor coordination tasks (e.g., soccer dribbling and basketball shooting).Additionally, we examine the role of cognitive and somatic anxiety in the classic stereotype threat situation compared to one in which also a positive identity is activated. We argue that whereas cognitive anxiety negatively affects performance in the classic stereotype threat condition, this relationship disappears when a positive social identity is also made salient. Multiple Identities and Stereotype Threat STEREOTYPE THREAT AND MULTIPLE IDENTITIES IN SPORTS 4The fact that every person belongs to a variety of different groups and thus possesses multiple social identities (e.g., being a woman, a mother, a researcher, a psychologist, and a soccer player) was often overlooked in early stereo...

Stereotype Threat in Sport: Recommendations for Applied Practice and Research

“…In addition, in particular countries or cultures, certain sports are considered more or less masculine compared to others. For example, in a study conducted in Germany by Martiny et al (2015), participants perceived soccer and basketball to be "men's sports" to a significantly greater extent than volleyball and field hockey. Moreover, participants rated the idea that men have greater ability in soccer or basketball as more widespread than the idea that men have greater ability in volleyball, field hockey, or sport in general.…”

« Les stéréotypes dans la peau » : une approche biopsychosociale des effets situationnels des stéréotypes sur la performance motrice

“…Adopter une théorie malléable de la compétence (e.g., Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002), mettre en avant un aspect de soi valorisé (e.g., Martiny et al, 2015), ou penser à un membre de son groupe qui est compétent dans le domaine évalué (e.g., Marx, Ko, & Friedman, 2009) sont des exemples de stratégies qui permettraient de maintenir un niveau optimal de performance en contexte menaçant. Par exemple, Martiny et al (2015) ont observé qu'en situation de menace du stéréotype, activer une identité positive (être membre d'une équipe de football) permettait d'améliorer la performance de femmes sur une tâche de football.…”

“…Les résultats inverses ont été observés chez les participants afro-américains. Concernant les stéréotypes négatifs liés au sexe féminin, plusieurs travaux ont depuis observé ce phénomène sur différentes tâches sportives, en golf (Stone & McWhinnie, 2008), football (Chalabaev, Sarrazin, Stone, & Cury, 2008 ;Heidrich & Chiviacowsky, 2015 ;Hermann & Vollmeyer, 2016 ;Martiny et al, 2015), basket-ball (e.g., Hively & El-Ayali, 2014 ;Laurin, 2013Laurin, , 2017Martiny et al, 2015), et en tennis (Hively & El-Alayli, 2014), et sur des tâches motrices de force (e.g., ) et de coordination (e.g., Huber, Brown, & Sternad, 2016Huber, Seitchik, Brown, Sternad, & Harkins, 2015). Ces études confirment généralement que la performance diminue suite à l'activation de stéréotypes négatifs à l'encontre des femmes en contexte moteur (sauf Huber et al, 2015, étude 3 ;Huber et al, 2016) [voir Tab.…”

What moderates the attainment gap? The effects of social identity incompatibility and practical incompatibility on the performance of students who are or are not Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic

“…Many studies have explored other factors that may underpin academic performance differences between BAME and non-BAME students. For example, studies exploring differences in approaches to learning as a function of ethnic group and the impact on assessment have produced mixed results (Martiny et al 2015;Mpofu and Oakland 2001;Ridley 2007). It is argued that the assessment environment is likely to produce stereotype threat which increases anxiety, thereby reducing cognitive capacity, attention, etc.…”

“…Work from the stereotype threat perspective (which suggests anxiety that one may confirm negative stereotypes about one's group can lead to cognitive load which itself impairs performance, e.g. Steele 1992Steele , 1997 indicates this may help to improve performance, to the extent that anxiety generated as a result of membership of negatively stereotyped groups has been linked to lower levels of attainment in BAME students (Osborne 2001;Martiny et al 2015).…”