Title of article :
The “Obama Effect”: How a salient role model reduces race-based performance differences
Author/Authors :
Marx، نويسنده , , David M. and Ko، نويسنده , , Sei Jin and Friedman، نويسنده , , Ray A.، نويسنده ,
Issue Information :
ماهنامه با شماره پیاپی سال 2009
Pages :
4
From page :
953
To page :
956
Abstract :
Barack Obama, the first Black-American president, has been widely heralded as a role model for Black-Americans because he inspires hope. The current study was conducted to assess whether, beyond simply inspiring hope, this “Obama Effect” has a concrete positive influence on Black-Americans’ academic performance. Over a three-month period we administered a verbal exam to four separate groups of Black- and White-American participants at four predetermined times. When Obama’s stereotype-defying accomplishments garnered national attention – just after his convention speech, and election to the presidency – they had a profound beneficial effect on Black-Americans’ exam performance, such that the negative effects of stereotype threat were dramatically reduced. This effect occurred even when concerns about racial stereotypes continued to exist. The fact that we found performance effects with a random sample of American participants, far removed from any direct contact with Obama, attests to the powerful impact of ingroup role models.
Keywords :
role models , Performance , Stereotyped attitudes , stereotype threat
Journal title :
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Serial Year :
2009
Journal title :
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Record number :
1958990
Link To Document :
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