Southern Discomfort: The Effects of Stereotype Threat on the Intellectual Performance of US Southerners JASON K. CLARK University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA CASSIE A. ENO AND ROSANNA E. GUADAGNO University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA Compared to other negatively stereotyped groups, a paucity of research has examined stereotypes of US southerners. Building from past research and theory on the phenomenon of stereotype threat, the current research examined the possibility that activating negative stereotypes of people from the southern US can undermine their performance on intellectual tasks. In four studies, southern US college students took a test consisting of difficult mathematical and verbal questions. When negative stereotypes about their group were activated, performance was lower compared to conditions in which stereotypes were not made salient. In addition, performance decrements associated with stereotype activation were found to be linked with individual differences in group identification. Results showed that higher levels of identification as a southerner predicted lower levels of test performance. Keywords: Group identification; Stereotype activation; Stereotype threat; Social identity. Compared to other regions of the United States, the ‘‘deep south’’ has long lagged behind in terms of the quality of education and student performance on standardized tests (e.g., see LeFevre, 2002, 2008; The Institute for a Competitive Workforce, 2007; The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2008). A recent state-by-state analysis and ranking reported that most states in the southern region fell into the bottom 30% on an index of educational effectiveness and performance on college entrance exams (LeFevre, 2008). These performance decrements could be due to a number of noted factors including Received 13 November 2009; accepted 2 March 2010; first published online 17 May 2010. Preliminary reports of Studies 1 and 2 were presented at the 2009 meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association (Chicago, IL) and Study 4 was presented at the 2010 meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (Las Vegas, NV). We thank the following individuals for their assistance with data collection: Michael Kilcoyne, Katherine O’Brien, and Jennifer Strack. Correspondence should be addressed to: Jason K. Clark, Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA., E-mail: jason-k-clark@uiowa.edu Self and Identity, 10: 248–262, 2011 http://www.psypress.com/sai ISSN: 1529-8868 print/1529-8876 online DOI: 10.1080/15298861003771080 Ó 2010 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business Downloaded By: [Clark, Jason] At: 03:06 11 March 2011