As I stated briefly in the introduction, negative stereotypes can be used by an individual to increase their motivation. Despite that some believe negative stereotypes threaten motivation, negative stereotypes actually increase motivation for individuals. According to “When White Men Can’t Do Math: Necessary and Sufficient Factors in Stereotype Threat” by Aronson and Steele, “Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming, as a self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one’s social group (Steele & Aronson, 1995)” . Many believe this leads to a lack of motivation; However, motivation is, in fact, increased when an individual deals with a negative stereotype of a group they identity with.
One example of this was Jackie Robinson. Despite living in Jim Crow United states, Jackie Robinson motivated himself to play pro baseball. Many athletes today still use Robinson’s experience as a motivator.
The Disney film, Mulan, sets a great example of this. Despite women’s status in society, Mulan, the protagonist defies negative gender stereotypes and sets a positive gender representation, motivated to disprove the generalizations made about her gender. The beauty about Disney movies is their ability to teach invaluable life lessons every child who watches carries with them for their life.
(As for personal experiences with this matter, I’ve had ’em.) An example of a negative stereotype would be saying that Polish people are stupid. Along with this stereotype came the phrase “dumb polak.” Personally, since I am Polish, I am motivated to disprove this, and I am not demotivated by it. If anything, it serves as an incentive for me to work harder and is more effective than a positive stereotype. Negative stereotypes can be used by individuals to increase their motivation, despite that people believe in can threaten one’s motivation.
A Ted Talk, performed by Sadie Ortiz (seen below) epitomizes my point in that negative stereotypes are a motivator. As seen in the video, Sadie was placed into a class in middle school for students who were identified as needing “extra help,” all on the basis that she is Latino. As she says, all of her grades and school history indicate she is studious. Sadie mentions that, in arriving to the class she was placed in, she would complete her work and put in extra effort to prove whoever mis-identified her as wrong. I thought the video was worth sharing because it is inspiring and applicable: