Obama makes black people smarter!

[Mr Skeptic]

OK, so better results on a test while under the influence of "stereotype threat" is not quite the same as smarter. Part of the study was to activate "stereotype threat" by exaggerating how important the test is at accurately identifying their intellectual strengths and weaknesses, and asking them about their race, before the test. Black people who watched Obama's success did better than the ones who didn't.

 

New York Times: Study Sees an Obama Effect as Lifting Black Test-Takers

 

These guys think the study is full of it (but haven't actually read the study): Most bogus study ever?

 

Original study: The ''Obama Effect": How a salient role model reduces race-based performance differences @ Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

(interestingly the study also shows a slight change in the opposite direction for the whites, but it is not mentioned and probably not statistically significant)

 

I guess that this relates a little to the half-joke that racism is over now that we have a black president.

[iNow]

It's just a priming effect, followed by a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you tell a kid they are a fuck up and are going to fail a test right before they take it, chances are significantly higher they will do more poorly than they would have otherwise. We associate and internalize the qualities of our group. Just like sports. When our team wins, our testosterone is higher and we feel more confident. When our team loses, our testosterone drops and and we're less confident (on average). It's really the same thing here. The people were reminded of how someone in their group has succeeded in such a phenomonal way, and they then have been primed to think they too can succeed and will have greater belief in themselves to do so.

 

Also, this is not Politics. This is Psych and Neuro.

[lemur]

I would guess it is more fear of what the social consequences might be if they actually succeeded academically that cause black students to do worse. I.e. If you suspect that you'll be treated with disdain if you test into "higher" classes, you might just conform to work-levels that keep you safe. Also, if you know that (some of) your friends might call you a sell-out or tell you that you think you're superior if you try to "climb the ladder" or "play the game," that might be another reason to avoid testing exceptionally. Some people, regardless of race but probably more having to do with class, just don't like math or other academic knowledge. They just focus on doing what they have to do to get money and, of course, this approach doesn't get you too far when the amount of knowledge and analytical skill you have to demonstrate are too tedious to do half-heartedly. Maybe Obama is inspirational because he combines a certain amount of the "keep it real" attitude of black culture with white-cultural political ideology and rhetorical styles. He does seem to create the impression that white and black cultural styles are not as opposed as they are often made out to seem, imo.

Edited September 28, 2010 by lemur