University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law Faculty Scholarship Francis King Carey School of Law Faculty 2016 Helping Our Students Reach Their Full Potential: The Insidious Consequences of Stereotype Threat Russell A. McClain University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/fac_pubs Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Law and Psychology Commons, Law and Race Commons, and the Legal Education Commons Digital Commons Citation McClain, Russell A., "Helping Our Students Reach Their Full Potential: The Insidious Consequences of Stereotype Threat" (2016). Faculty Scholarship. 1564. https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/fac_pubs/1564 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Francis King Carey School of Law Faculty at DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. test HELPING OUR STUDENTS REACH THEIR FULL POTENTIAL: THE INSIDIOUS CONSEQUENCES OF IGNORING STEREOTYPE THREAT Russell A. McClain A psychological phenomenon may be a significant cause of academic underachievement by minorities and women in the legal profession. This phenomenon, called stereotype threat, occurs as a result of the fear of confirming a negative group stereotype (such as African- Americans are not as intelligent as Whites). When subject to this threat—as a consequence of being confronted with environmental or explicit triggers—people perform worse in academic settings than they otherwise are capable of performing.