Stereotype threat among European Roma adults

Želinský, Tomáš

Abstract

Negative stereotypes associated with certain groups can lead to stereotype threat, a phenomenon that can negatively impact performance. The majority of existing studies that find negative effects of stereotype threat on performance are based on subpopulations such as students and older adults. This paper contributes by investigating the concept of stereotype threat in the context of adults at a range of ages of Roma ethnicity in Slovakia. The study is based on an incentivized lab-in-field experiment with 203 participants. Its main goal is to investigate whether reminding Roma adults of their ethnic identity affects their performance. The results suggest that making ethnicity salient reduces the performance of Roma adults by approximately 11%. These findings are consistent with the expectations of the stereotype threat hypothesis. The study further examines confidence as a potential channel, but the findings are ambiguous.

Citation

Želinský, T. (2022). Stereotype threat among European Roma adults. Applied Economics Letters, 29(1), 49-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2020.1855301

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Dec 20, 2020
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: May 22, 2021
• Journal: Applied Economics Letters
• Print ISSN: 1350-4851
• Electronic ISSN: 1466-4291
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 29
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 49-52
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2020.1855301