Stereothreat

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

History, Science, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Society & Culture

4.6 • 44.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2017

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Back in 1995, Claude Steele published a study that showed that negative stereotypes could have a detrimental effect on students' academic performance. But the big surprise was that he could make that effect disappear with just a few simple changes in language. We were completely enamoured with this research when we first heard about it, but in the current roil of replications and self-examination in the field of social psychology, we have to wonder whether we can still cling to the hopes of our earlier selves, or if we might have to grow up just a little bit. This piece was produced by Simon Adler and Amanda Aronczyk and reported by Dan Engber and Amanda Aronczyk. Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Wait, you're listening.
0:03.1	Okay.
0:04.4	All right.
0:05.6	Okay.
0:07.0	All right.
0:08.4	You're listening to Radio Lab.
0:11.4	Radio Lab.
0:11.9	From W. N. Y.
0:13.9	C.
0:14.8	See?
0:15.1	Yeah.
0:19.4	Can I ask you? Do you just want to like lay out for us the chronology of your obsession?
0:26.2	I think I feel comfortable saying it was, has it become an obsession or just a just a, a, a, a dalliance?
0:31.1	I mean, or maybe you just noticed a crumbling building and ran over to stick your pen.
0:36.3	I mean, I, I am, am, I'm a contrarian.
0:41.3	And I'm interested in alternative facts about science, let's say.
0:47.3	Hey, I'm Chadabumrod.
0:49.2	I'm Robert Crulwich. This is Radio Lab.
0:51.3	And a little while back, our editor, Sorn Wheeler and I, we talked to a science journalist named Dan Engber, who got us kind of tangled up about something that we thought we knew about the world, about ourselves. Something beautiful, as I recall. Yeah, that we talked about at great length on this show. Okay. Hello? Hello? And to set that conversation up, we're going to start with this guy. Hi, is this
1:11.5	Claude Steele? Yes. Professor Claude Steele. I'm the Lucy Stern's Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. We actually had them on the show number of years ago. Some time ago, I can't remember how many years ago. Yeah, it's been a long time. I'm looking at the sheet here and it says 2009. Whoa, that blows my mind. Yeah, that was a lot younger man then.
1:30.6	And the reason. been a long time. I'm looking at the sheet here and it says 2009. Whoa, that blows my mind. Yeah,
1:28.5	that was a lot younger man then. And the reason we had him on the show back then was because he had
	...

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