Research Looks at Stereotype Vulnerability among Black Students

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NEW YORK

Students who felt they were being racially stereotyped were more likely to show difficulty in assessing their academic skills and performance than those who hadn't felt the stigma, according to New York University research.

'The Ups and Downs of Attributional Ambiguity: Stereotype Vulnerability and the Academic Self Knowledge of African American College Students" study is funded by the National Science Foundation and is published in the December issue of Psychological Science.

"Social scientists have long been puzzled about why African American students seem to maintain high aspirations, even in cases where their own past performances makes these …