Cognitive Science Program

Signaling threat: How situational cues affect women in math, science, and engineering settings (2007)
Mary C Murphy, Claude M Steele and James J Gross
Psychological science, 18 (10), 879-885

Abstract

This study examined the cues hypothesis, which holds that situational cues, such as a setting's features and organization, can make potential targets vulnerable to social identity threat. Objective and subjective measures of identity threat were collected from male and female math, science, and engineering (MSE) majors who watched an MSE conference video depicting either an unbalanced ratio of men to women or a balanced ratio. Women who viewed the unbalanced video exhibited more cognitive and physiological vigilance, and reported a lower sense of belonging and less desire to participate in the conference, than did women who viewed the gender-balanced video. Men were unaffected by this situational cue. The implications for understanding vulnerability to social identity threat, particularly among women in MSE settings, are discussed.

A culture of genius: How an organization’s lay theory shapes people’s cognition, affect, and behavior (2010)
Mary C Murphy and Carol S Dweck
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36 (3), 283-296

Abstract

Traditionally, researchers have conceptualized implicit theories as individual differences—lay theories that vary between people. This article, however, investigates the consequences of organization-level implicit theories of intelligence. In five studies, the authors examine how an organization’s fixed (entity) or malleable (incremental) theory of intelligence affects people’s inferences about what is valued, their self- and social judgments, and their behavioral decisions. In Studies 1 and 2, the authors find that people systematically shift their self-presentations when motivated to join an entity or incremental organization. People present their “smarts” to the entity environment and their “motivation” to the incremental environment. In Studies 3a and 4, they show downstream consequences of these inferences for participants’ self-concepts and their hiring decisions. In Study 3b, they demonstrate that the effects are not due to …

Mindsets shape consumer behavior (2016)
Mary C Murphy and Carol S Dweck
Journal of Consumer Psychology, 26 (1), 127-136

Abstract

Mindsets—or implicit theories—are the beliefs people have about the nature of human characteristics. This article applies mindset theory and research to the field of consumer behavior. Specifically, we suggest how a fixed or growth mindset may shape consumer product preferences, acceptance of brand extensions, trust recovery following product failures, as well as the effectiveness of advertising and marketing campaigns. We argue that people with a fixed mindset are more likely to seek products and brands in line with their goals to burnish their self-image and demonstrate their positive qualities, while people with a growth mindset seek products that help them pursue their goals to improve and learn new things. Thus, products and brands may serve important self-enhancement functions—encouraging consumers to reinforce or expand core aspects of their identity. We also suggest that brands and companies …

Experience-sampling research methods and their potential for education research (2015)
Sabrina Zirkel, Julie A Garcia and Mary C Murphy
Educational Researcher, 44 (1), 16-Jul

Abstract

Experience-sampling methods (ESM) enable us to learn about individuals’ lives in context by measuring participants’ feelings, thoughts, actions, context, and/or activities as they go about their daily lives. By capturing experience, affect, and action in the moment and with repeated measures, ESM approaches allow researchers access to expand the areas and aspects of participants’ experiences they can investigate and describe and to better understand how people and contexts shape these experiences. We argue ESM approaches can be particularly enriching for education research by enabling us to ask new and interesting questions about how students, teachers, and school leaders engage with education as they are living their lives and thus help us to better understand how education contexts shape learning and other outcomes. In this article, we highlight the value of these approaches for addressing new and …

The role of situational cues in signaling and maintaining stereotype threat (2012)
Mary C Murphy and Valerie Jones Taylor
Oxford University Press.

Abstract

This chapter focuses on how stereotype threat is produced and sustained through threatening situational cues in an environment—such as its organization, features, and physical characteristics—that suggest the possible mistreatment or devaluation of stigmatized individuals. First, we illustrate how threatening situational cues engender a vigilance process whereby stigmatized individuals direct attention toward additional cues to determine the value and meaning of their social identity in a setting. We review how both explicit and subtle situational cues elicit stereotype threat, particularly among racial minorities in academic settings and women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) domains. We propose that the meaning people assign to those cues ultimately affects whether they will become vulnerable to—or protected against—stereotype threat. Further, we suggest that situational cues are …

Identity threat at work: How social identity threat and situational cues contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in the workplace (2014)
Katherine TU Emerson and Mary C Murphy
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 20 (4), 508

Abstract

Significant disparities remain between racial and ethnic minorities’ and Whites’ experiences of American workplaces. Traditional prejudice and discrimination approaches explain these gaps in hiring, promotion, satisfaction, and well-being by pointing to the prejudice of people within organizations such as peers, managers, and executives. Grounded in social identity threat theory, this theoretical review instead argues that particular situational cues—often communicated by well-meaning, largely unprejudiced employees and managers—signal to stigmatized groups whether their identity is threatened and devalued or respected and affirmed. First, we provide an overview of how identity threat shapes the psychological processes of racial and ethnic minorities by heightening vigilance to certain situational cues in the workplace. Next, we outline several of these cues and their role in creating and sustaining perceptions …

Modern prejudice: Subtle, but unconscious? The role of Bias Awareness in Whites' perceptions of personal and others' biases (2015)
Sylvia P Perry, Mary C Murphy and John F Dovidio
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 61 64-78

Abstract

Three studies introduced the construct of bias awareness and examined its effect on Whites' responses to evidence of personal and others' racial biases. Contemporary theories of prejudice suggest that awareness of personal bias is a critical step in reducing one's prejudice and discrimination. When bias is a cloaked in a way that people do not recognize, they are likely to continue to perpetuate their biased behaviors and unlikely to reduce their negative attitudes. However, when people become aware of their biases, they often adjust their attitudes and behavior to be more egalitarian. The present research investigated (a) individual differences in Whites' awareness of their propensity to express subtly biased behavior against Blacks in interracial contexts (Study 1), (b) the convergent and discriminant validity of a new individual difference measure of bias awareness (Studies 1, 2, and 3), (c) whether this measure …

A company I can trust? Organizational lay theories moderate stereotype threat for women (2015)
Katherine TU Emerson and Mary C Murphy
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41 (2), 295-307

Abstract

Women remain under-represented in the leadership of corporate America. According to stereotype threat theory, this under-representation may persist because women are concerned about being stereotyped in business settings. Three studies investigated whether an entity (fixed), compared with an incremental (malleable), organizational lay theory is threatening for women evaluating a consulting company. Men and women viewed a company mission statement or website containing an entity or incremental theory. Results revealed that women—more so than men—trusted the entity company less than the incremental company. Furthermore, only women’s mistrust of the entity company was driven by their expectations about being stereotyped by its management. Notably, when combined with high or low representations of female employees, only organizational lay theories predicted trust. Finally, people’s …

Stereotype threat in organizations: Implications for equity and performance (2015)
Gregory M Walton, Mary C Murphy and Ann Marie Ryan
Annual Reviews. 2 (1), 523-550

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, a large body of laboratory and field research has shown that, when people perform in settings in which their group is negatively stereotyped, they may experience a phenomenon called stereotype threat that can undermine motivation and trust and cause underperformance. This review describes that research and places it into an organizational context. First, we describe the processes by which stereotype threat can impair outcomes among people in the workplace. Next, we delineate the situational cues in organizational settings that can exacerbate stereotype threat, and explain how and why these cues affect stereotyped individuals. Finally, we discuss relatively simple empirically based strategies that organizations can implement to reduce stereotype threat and create conditions in which employees and applicants from all groups can succeed.

Race and belonging in school: How anticipated and experienced belonging affect choice, persistence, and performance (2015)
MARY C Murphy and Sabrina Zirkel
Teachers College Record, 117 (12), Jan-40

Abstract

Background/Context: A sense of belonging in school is a complex construct that relies heavily on students’ perceptions of the educational environment, especially their relationships with other students. Some research suggests that a sense of belonging in school is important to all students. However, we argue that the nature and meaning of belonging in school is different for students targeted by negative racial stereotypes—such as African American, Latino/a, Native American, and some Asian American students. Our conceptual framework draws upon stigma and stereotype threat theory and, specifically, the concept of belonging uncertainty, to explore how concerns about belonging in academic contexts may have different meaning for—and thus differentially affect the academic outcomes of—White students compared with underrepresented racial and ethnic minority students.Purpose/Objective: Although feelings of belonging are important to all students, there are reasons to believe that students from stigmatized racial and ethnic groups may have especially salient concerns about belonging in school because their social identities make them vulnerable to negative stereotyping and social identity threat. Three studies examined how college and middle school students’ feelings of belonging at school relate to their academic aspirations, motivation, and performance.Research Design: One experiment (Study 1) and two longitudinal studies (Studies 2-3) examined the influence of belonging among students in different educational settings. Study 1 examined first year college students’ social representations of the kinds of students that comprised …

Prejudice concerns and race-based attentional bias: New evidence from eyetracking (2012)
Meghan G Bean, Daniel G Slaten, William S Horton, Mary C Murphy, Andrew R Todd and Jennifer A Richeson
Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3 (6), 722-729

Abstract

The present study used eyetracking methodology to assess whether individuals high in external motivation (EM) to appear nonprejudiced exhibit an early bias in visual attention toward Black faces indicative of social threat perception. Drawing on previous work examining visual attention to socially threatening stimuli, the authors predicted that high-EM participants, but not lower-EM participants, would initially look toward Black faces and then subsequently direct their attention away from these faces. Participants viewed pairs of images, some of which consisted of one White and one Black male face, while a desk-mounted eyetracking camera recorded their eye movements. Results showed that, as predicted, high-EM, but not lower-EM, individuals exhibited patterns of visual attention indicative of social threat perception.

When your friends matter: The effect of White students' racial friendship networks on meta-perceptions and perceived identity contingencies (2010)
Daryl A Wout, Mary C Murphy and Claude M Steele
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46 (6), 1035-1041

Abstract

Prior research suggests that people expect to be perceived negatively in interracial interactions but positively in intraracial interactions. The present research demonstrates that an interaction partner's racial network of friends can moderate these expectations in interracial interactions but not intraracial interactions. Across two experiments, we led Black and White college students to believe they would have conversation with a White student on campus. The results revealed that Black students expected to be perceived more positively and anticipated a less challenging conversation, when their interaction partner had a racially diverse network of friends compared to a racially homogeneous network of friends. In contrast, White students expected to be perceived positively and anticipated few challenges in the conversation, regardless of their interaction partner's racial network of friends. The implications of racial …

Leveraging motivational mindsets to foster positive interracial interactions (2011)
Mary C Murphy, Jennifer A Richeson and Daniel C Molden
Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5 (2), 118-131

Abstract

As the United States becomes increasingly diverse, interracial contact will become considerably less rare. Much research has suggested that interracial interactions are often stressful and uncomfortable for both Whites and racial minorities. Bringing together several bodies of research, the present article outlines a motivational perspective on the dynamics of intergroup contact. To this end, we consider the roles of three motivational mindsets that have the potential to shape interactions to be less cognitively depleting and more enjoyable for both interactants. In particular, we consider the effects of (i) approach and avoidance motivation (Handbook of Motivation and Cognition: Foundation of Social Behavior, 1990, New York: Guilford Press), (ii) promotion and prevention regulatory focus (American Psychologist, 52, 1997, 1280), and (iii) learning and performance goals (Psychological Review, 95, 1988, 256) in shaping …

Group‐based differences in perceptions of racism: What counts, to whom, and why? (2015)
Evelyn R Carter and Mary C Murphy
Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9 (6), 269-280

Abstract

Belonging to a group fundamentally shapes the way we interpret and attribute the behavior of others. Similarly, perceptions of racism can be influenced by group membership. Experimental and survey research reveal disagreement between Whites and Blacks about the prevalence of racism in America. Several social cognitive factors contribute to this disagreement: discrepancies in Whites' and Blacks' lay intuitions about the attitudes and behaviors that count as racism, comparison standards when determining racial progress, and the salience of and meaning drawn from successful Black individuals in society. These perceptual discrepancies have consequences for policy attitudes, decisions about how best to combat racial inequality, and beliefs about whether inequality persists. Successful interventions that increase Whites' knowledge of structural racism and that attenuate self‐image threat suggest that it is …

Cognitive costs of contemporary prejudice (2013)
Mary C Murphy, Jennifer A Richeson, J Nicole Shelton, Michelle L Rheinschmidt and Hilary B Bergsieker
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 16 (5), 560-571

Abstract

Two studies examined the cognitive costs of blatant and subtle racial bias during interracial interactions. In Study 1, Black participants engaged in a 10-minute, face-to-face interaction with a White confederate who expressed attitudes and behaviors consistent with blatant, subtle, or no racial bias. Consistent with contemporary theories of modern racism, interacting with a subtly biased, compared with a blatantly biased, White partner impaired the cognitive functioning of Blacks. Study 2 revealed that Latino participants suffered similar cognitive impairments when exposed to a White partner who displayed subtle, compared with blatant, racial bias. The theoretical and practical implications for understanding the dynamics of interracial interactions in the context of contemporary bias are discussed.