effect stereotype threat, and since those first experiments in the late 1990s, hundreds of other studies have both confirmed its existence and examined its pernicious effect. Simply knowing that a stereotype exists can influence how we behave. For Black students, or women in advanced math courses, or many others, “it is the mere existence of the stereotype about their identity’s abilities in society that threatens them, not necessarily the racism of the people around them,” Steele said. Even if no one in the student’s orbit is prejudiced, the student can still be undermined by the knowledge
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