Jarrod Call University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, U.S. C. Steele. 2010. Whistling Vivaldi: And other clues to how stereotypes affect us. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 242 pp., (hardcover). ISBN: 978-0393-06249-6 Keywords: academic performance, stereotype threat, identity, social psy- chology, achievement gap With the ever increasing diversity job at the local Country Club as a of our societies, Whistling Vivaldi golf caddy. After being ignored all offers a perspective on one of the day standing outside the gated en- more relevant issues of our time: trance he began to question wheth- how stereotypes affect us. The au- er his identity limited him access to thor, Claude Steele, is a social psy- some opportunities. Claude is black, chologist with a doctorate from the and in Chicago during the 1950s, Ohio State University, and is cur- black children were relegated cer- rently provost at Columbia Univer- tain times they could visit swim- sity. Dr. Steele has received many ming pools and skating rinks; and academic and professional acco- they most certainly could not carry lades, most notably two awards for golf clubs at the Country Club. Dr. Distinguished Scientific Contribu- Steele’s experience led him to theo- tions from the American Psychology rize on how identity can alter one’s Association and American Psychol- success in a given society, not only ogy Society, respectively. Central to by limiting an individual’s access to his accomplishments is his quest certain opportunities, but also by af- to better understand the nature of fecting one’s performance. race, gender, and ethnicity and their Identity contingencies are, as impacts on the individual and soci- discussed by Dr. Steele, ‘conditions ety. This enduring goal can be attrib- one has to deal with in a setting in uted to a pivotal experience from Dr. order to function in it (p. 68).’ These Steele’s childhood. When Claude contingencies are affected by one’s turned thirteen he tried to obtain a social identities as white, black, rich, Graduate Journal of Social Science June 2011, Vol. 8, Issue 1 © 2011 by Graduate Journal of Social Science. All Rights Reserved. ISSN: 1572-3763 110 GJSS Vol 8, Issue 1 poor, politically conservative or liber- noticed white couples locking arms al, educated or uneducated, and so and crossing the street to avoid him. on. Of particular interest to Dr. Steele Fearful actions displayed by these are the contingencies brought on by couples were not based on the ac- stereotype threat.1 As he describes tions of Brent, but were based on his it, ‘[w]e could all take out a piece of stereotype threat as an aggressive, paper and write down the major ste- violence prone black man. Out of reotypes of other members of our nervousness, Brent began to whis- society (p. 5).’ He argues that there tle Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as he would be a high degree of similar- walked down the street. He noticed ity on the content of these lists gen- the positive impact of his whistling erated by society’s members, and as the ‘tension drained from peoples this substantiates the fact that each bodies’ when they heard him (p. 6). member is keenly aware of his or By whistling classical music Brent her own social identity. Stereotype made the aggressive stereotype threat then arises when an individu- less applicable to him and demon- al becomes consumed with the fear strated how he, too, was educated of confirming a particular stereotype and refined. But can dealing with by his or her actions (e.g., a female the pressures of stereotype threat performing poorly on a math exam). be as easy as whistling Vivaldi? Dr. Steele does not simplify the sub- The primary objective of the so- ject by arguing stereotype threat cial and psychological research could be attenuated by eliminating presented in Whistling Vivaldi is to stereotypes. Instead, he proposes better understand why individuals that ‘if you want to change the be- underperform in certain circum- haviors and outcomes associated stances, with the thesis being that with social identity, don’t focus on stereotype threat plays a pivotal changing the internal manifestations role. Whistling Vivaldi covers this of the identity, such as values, and material in eleven chapters, but the attitudes. Focus instead on chang- book is essentially organized into ing the contingencies to which all of four fundamental themes: describ- the internal stuff is an adaptation (p. ing stereotype threat; exemplifying 84).’ The analogy Dr. Steele uses to the impact of stereotype threat on connect the reader to the influen- performance based tests; explor- tial powers of stereotype threat is ing the mechanisms linking stereo- the story of Brent Staples, also the type threat to poor performance; muse for the title of the book. Brent, and providing scientifically backed too, is a black male who grew up in methodology (i.e., peer-reviewed Chicago. Walking down the street publications) for attenuating the ef- between his classes while attend- fects of stereotype threat. Dr. Steele ing the University of Chicago, Brent uses the platform of the book to cre- Review: Call 111 ate a narrative that covers his per- the first study, men and women of sonal research history including the equally strong math skills and com- etiology of his ideas, his preeminent mitment to math education took ei- studies and their conclusions, and ther a 30-minute GRE math test or a finally offers ideas for desired appli- 30-minute GRE literature test. Men cations. Through this literary style, and women performed equally well a broad audience would appreci- on the literature exam, but women ate and enjoy the book; however, significantly underperformed on the its conclusions and applications will difficult math test. What this result be of more value to individuals in- meant for Dr. Steele was that during terested in the underlying causes of a difficult math test women, aware academic underachievement. For of the stereotype of their underper- instance, future educators and ad- formance on math exams, become ministrators would be particularly concerned about confirming their interested in his work on stereotype gender’s negative stereotype, and threat’s impact on female science thus they are presented with an and math testing as well as stan- identity contingency, absent from dardized test underachievement in men, during the exam. black students. The caveat is that Dr. Steele discusses how similar a detailed discussion on these top- effects of stereotype threat play out ics is absent from the book. Instead everyday from bad standardized- the reader must refer to the actual test scores by minorities to profes- peer-reviewed articles written by Dr. sional athletes playing for historical- Steele and co-authors. Dr. Steele ly underachieving sport franchises; kindly provides a reference list as- but how can stereotype threat affect sociated with each chapter at the performance? Dr. Steele acknowl- end of the book, however, so that edges that people often see them- readers can easily find these arti- selves in terms of whichever one of cles online or in a library. their identities is most under attack. To frame his argument that ste- This is because we often have an reotype threat is linked to intellectual emotional connection to our identi- performance, Dr. Steele discusses ties. We tend to think well of our one of his early studies on female identities because we like to think underperformance in advanced well of ourselves. When identities math classes in college. He does are under attack people can become not posit that women possess a myopic, diverting attention from the lesser biological capacity for mathe- task at hand. That is the psychologi- matic analysis, but instead suggests cal basis, but there is also a physi- women present a psychological ological basis to stereotype threat’s vulnerability due to gender stig- effect on performance. Stereotype matization (stereotype threat). For threatening test environments can 112 GJSS Vol 8, Issue 1 increase anxiety, as marked by in- his or her performance on the task creases in mean arterial blood pres- at hand. For instance an individual sure; but perhaps the most striking that more strongly indentifies with example of the physiology of stereo- sports, may not value mathematics, type threat was observed by having therefore relinquishing stereotype women take an advanced math test threat during a mathematical exam. while concurrently having neural This means stereotype threat is structures analyzed by functional very much internalized, and any ed- MRI [work conducted by collabora- ucator hoping to drastically improve tors of Dr. Steele (Krendl et al. 2008, test scores should not consider so- Psychology Science, 19(2):168- lutions provided within the text the 175)].Mathematical learning is typi- ultimate means to an end. cally observed in the angular gy- Whistling Vivaldi provides a pas- rus and left parietal and prefrontal sionate and detailed argument for cortex of the brain; however, under reassessing underperforming indi- stereotype threat there was an ex- viduals and structuring curriculum citement of the brain regions better to avoid stereotype threatening associated with social and emotion- test environments. Dr. Steele men- al processing. Overall, for women tions that ~85% of jobs are obtained this contingency ‘diverts attention through networking, and accessing and mental capacity away from the these networks is a matter of op- task at hand, which worsens perfor- portunity contingent on educational mance’ and ‘further exacerbates success. Whether these social net- anxiety (p. 126).’ works actually exist for particular Dr. Steele does not present the minority groups, independent of dilemma and leave the audience educational success, however, is perplexed. He offers many sugges- never addressed. Also, it could be tions to reduce stereotype threat in argued that stereotype threat is not testing environments.