Barry Markovsky Jennifer McLeer University of South Carolina
Previous findings have shown that intelligence test scores of members of disadvantaged groups are negatively affected by their relative status in test situations. We explain this by assuming that lower-status actors forego benefits that normally follow from successful performance of a task if they anticipate that there are also social costs associated with success. We use an integration of Status Characteristics Theory, Rational Choice Theory and Prospect Theory to argue that low status actors that associate higher costs with high performance will perform worse than those who expect lower costs with high performance. Such underperformance may be due to any of three factors: (1) dissonance reduction, (2) fear of sanctions from other low status actors, or (3) fear of sanctions from high status actors. The co-investigator will test these ideas using three experiments conducted at the Laboratory for Sociological Research at the University of South Carolina. The first study tests whether or not test-takers scores are affected by the above factors. The second study tests these ideas using a different method: direct manipulation of costs and rewards associated with performance. The third study extends the findings of the other two by testing to see if social costs drive test underperformance for minority group members in same-race and mixed-race settings.
Broader Impacts
This research contributes to a cross-disciplinary body of literature concerning group differences and test scores. Therefore, research findings will be relevant in diverse fields such as psychology, education, and economics. Additionally, the use of undergraduate assistants and subjects allows for a new generation of potential scholars to be trained in the use of experimental methods for social scientific research. As for future applications, understanding how perceptions of social rewards and costs affect intelligence test performances is important for efforts to intervene in naturally-occurring status processes. If perception of status-related rewards and costs underlie educational performance and achievement, then interventions that combat these perceptions can level the playing field for students from different backgrounds. More concretely, findings from this research may be applied to educational settings to help eliminate the achievement gap, not only in mental ability test scores, but also in daily classroom activities.
Previous findings have shown that intelligence test scores of members of disadvantaged groups are negatively affected by their relative status in test situations. We explain this by assuming that lower-status actors forego benefits that normally follow from successful performance of a task if they anticipate that there are also social costs associated with success. We use an integration of Status Characteristics Theory, Rational Choice Theory and Prospect Theory to argue that low status actors that associate higher costs with high performance perform worse than those who expect lower costs with high performance. Such underperformance was hypothesized to be due to the fear of sanctions from other low status actors or the fear of sanctions from high status actors. We ran a series of experiments at the Laboratory for Sociological Research at the University of South Carolina and found that low status individuals do, in fact, score lower on intelligence tests when they anticipate costs for high test performance. We further identified that the underperformance was due to a conscious attempt to put forth less effort on the test. Analyses are still being conducted on collected data to assess the extent to which the social status of the person giving the sanctions contributes to this relationship. Intellectual Merit We developed the ideas for this project with explicit theoretical propositions that were then tested using experimental procedures that were designed to rule-out possible alternative explanations. As a result, we were able to assess, with a great deal of precision, the extent to which our theory could explain differences in academic achievement between high and low status individuals. Additionally, this project connects with and extends a sixty year old line of cumulative research on status effects. Our series of studies is one of the only projects within this tradition to extend the theoretical propositions and methodological precision of this research program to study individual academic performance. Using these tried and true procedures to examine new phenomena provides endless possibilities for future research. Broader Impacts This research contributes to a cross-disciplinary body of literature concerning group differences and test scores. Therefore, our findings are relevant in diverse fields such as psychology, education, and economics. Understanding how perceptions of social rewards and costs affect intelligence test performances is important for efforts to intervene in naturally-occurring status processes. If perception of status-related rewards and costs underlie educational performance and achievement, then interventions that combat these perceptions can level the playing field for students from different backgrounds. As a result of this project identifying both the relationship between status and academic performance and also the mechanisms by which this relationship operates, we are one step closer to establishing strategies for intervention in applied settings that will ameliorate such effects. More concretely, findings from this research may be applied to educational settings to help eliminate the achievement gap, not only in mental ability test scores, but also in daily classroom activities.
