Social Class and Test Performance

Jean-Claude Croizet (1) , Mathias Millet (2, 3)

1 CeRCA [Poitiers] - Centre de recherches sur la cognition et l'apprentissage [UMR 7295]
2 GRESCO [Poitiers, Limoges] - Groupe de recherches et d'études sociologiques du Centre-Ouest [EA 3815]
3 CMW - Centre Max Weber

Each year, the pro le report issued by the College Board systematically reveals that Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores are strongly related to parental annual income (College Entrance Examination Board, 2009). e very rich get the best scores, the very poor the lowest. is chapter focuses on the ways in which stereotypes that portray the poor as not intelligent impact test achievement. Compared to other literatures on gender or race, research on stereotype threat associated to social class remains largely underdeveloped, albeit consistent. First, we present research on the a itudes and stereotypes that people hold toward those who are poor. Poor people are the victims of a contemptuous stereotype that portray them as unintelligent and lazy. We then review the work that has studied the impact of such negative stereotypes on both achievement and ability testing. Borrowing from work on intersectionality and social repro- duction (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1970), we next advocate for conceptualiz- ing socioeconomic status, not as a personal variable, but more as a social process involving power asymmetry in the social structure. We then propose that stereotype threat is the psychological manifestation of a sym- bolic violence embedded in evaluative se ings. We nally suggest that future research should investigate how ideology (stereotypes), institutional practices (evaluative se ings), and behavior (performance) work together to recycle power and privilege into individual di erences in intellectual merit.

Mots clés: Social Class; Test Performance; Stereotype Threat; Symbolic Violence

Domaines: Sociologie; Psychologie

Jean-Claude Croizet, Mathias Millet. Social Class and Test Performance: From Stereotype Threat to Symbolic Violence and Vice Versa. Stereotype Threat : Theory, Process and Application, Oxford University Press, pp.188-201, 2011. ⟨halshs-00983906⟩