WISE INTERVENTIONS

Undergraduate underrepresented racial-ethnic minority students enrolled in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) programs learned about stereotype threat, how it can affect test performance, and that awareness of stereotype threat can help people protect against it. They then reflected on a stereotype threat situation they had experienced and strategized about how they could cope with the experience effectively. This exercise reduced stereotype-based evaluative concerns, improved performance on a laboratory test of abstract reasoning, and improved semester grades in STEM courses, eliminating a racial-ethnic disparity. At the same time, a value-affirmation intervention also reduced stereotype-based evaluative concerns and improved test performance but did not affect semester grades among minority students.