Members of the Diversity Committee have been highlighting diversity-related books of interest each month. In this article, Eric Novotny reviews “Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us” by Claude M. Steele
Read This Book: http://cat.libraries.psu.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/0/0/0/5?searchdata1=^C6192813

By Eric Novotny

Have you ever been judged based on how you look? In an accessible, jargon-free account, Whistling Vivaldi explores how fears over being judged due to our race, gender, or age can alter behavior. In the anecdote that supplies the book’s title, the African American writer Brent Staples, conscious of stereotypes of black males as violent criminals, whistles Vivaldi while walking the streets at night to signal to white people that he is educated and not a threat. Steele guides readers through the social psychology literature showing how stereotype threats follow us like a “cloud”, affecting performance in conscious and unconscious ways. Black students who are told that a test measures “cognitive ability” perform worse than whites. Blacks taking the same test without the pressure to counter negative stereotypes about their intelligence performed as well as whites. The anxiety of performing under stereotype threat appears universal. When told that a miniature-golf exercise would measure athletic ability, white men performed worse than when they were told the test measured their “sports strategic intelligence.”

This book addresses an important issue in higher education and society. It provides a persuasive argument for why race, gender, and other identities remain powerful factors even when overt discrimination is widely socially unacceptable. Fortunately, Steele offer insights into how society can reduce the impact of stereotype threats. Merely refuting the stereotype can have positive effects. Women who were told before a math test that mathematical ability was not gender specific did better than women who weren’t given that verbal support.