Stereotyping

The "stereotype threat" is a negative stereotype, and its effects on performance. This is an example of the performance impairment that results when individuals asked to carry out an task are made aware of a negative stereotype held against them regarding their group's ability to preform well in that task. It is scary how even with the slightest manipulation we can find proof for this theory. For example, if you simply tell female participants, before they take a math test, that males usually do better in math, then this will lead to deterioration of female performance in the test. Or if you make older participants aware of their age, they will perform significantly worse on their memory tests, then members of the same age who haven't been reminded of this internal stereotype. Any strong stereotype category that a person belongs to, such as sex, age, or race is susceptible to negative, but also positive stereotype influence. It was shown that positive stereotype reinforcement may be just as powerful as any negative threat. If you invoke a positive stereotype, such as college students are good at math, or older people have more experience, the targeted groups mentioned above can actually better scores then they normally would.  Researchers have determined that stereotypes can have an huge impact on those that they target. It is not anymore about the feeling, not just harmless words. The power of a stereotype is so strong that it can overwhelm many of our traits,  which then results in the saying: you're only as good as you expect to be.