Does academic praise communicate stereotypic expectancies to Black students?

Abstract

Based on the stereotype that questions Black students' intellectual ability, the present study examines the meaning of academic praise for White evaluators and Black students. Three experiments tested whether academic praise communicates low expectancies of Black students when White evaluators lacked knowledge of the students' prior performances. Experiment 1 failed to show that White evaluators praise Black students more than White students for a good academic performance when the evaluators lacked knowledge of the students' prior performance. Experiment 2 showed that Black participants who received praise by a White evaluator for a good academic performance believed the evaluator had lower expectations and rated the evaluator less favorably than Black participants who were not praised. However, Black participants who received praise had higher performance self-esteem than Black participants who did not receive praise and White participants who did and did not receive praise. Experiment 3 showed that Black participants who received praise, regardless of whether they were told about a White evaluator's expectancies (i.e., high or low), believed the evaluator had lower expectations and tended to feel better about their performance than Black participants who did not receive praise.