Next is the Self-Fulfilling prophecy, associated to the «Pygmalion Effect». This explains the change in one’s behavior influenced by beliefs from important others. Furthermore, an important effect of stereotyping on the behavior of individuals is the «Confirmation Bias». It is defined as the process of noting all the examples that match our assumptions and disregarding examples refuting our beliefs. The confirmation bias is extremely impervious to modifications, since this process comes automatically to us. It makes stereotypical thinking resistant to change.
An experiment supporting the Confirmation Bias was conducted by Snyder and Swann (1978). The experimenters used female college students and assigned them in two conditions, one which featured them meeting with an introvert and another where they would meet an extrovert. They had to ask questions and carry out a conversation with them, and the experiments had the ability to confirm the stereotypes based on the questions these female students asked the interviewees. This experiment is a very standard and easily replicated procedure which, without a doubt, confirms the confirmation bias. Because the female students have formed a stereotype in their heads about the behavior of an introvert and an extrovert respectively, they will ask very specific questions based on how they think the interviewee is going to respond.
The last effect of stereotypes on behavior is the infamous «Stereotype Threat». When someone is in a situation and he has the fear of doing something or behaving a certain way that would inadvertly confirm an attributed stereotype, we call it the stereotype threat. If, for example, a person is often called fat although he is barely chubby, he might fear eating in public in case someone sees him, which will inevitably lead to the confirmation of that stereotype against him. This paralyzing fear leads to spotlight anxiety, the anxiety of being in social situations or being looked at in public by others. Spotlight anxiety ineludibly leads to poor performance.
A study explaining the stereotype threat was the «Steell and Aronson» study performed in 1995. The experimenters gave participants, Europeans and African Americans, a thirty minute verbal test consisting of difficult questions. In the first condition they told people that the test was a test of their verbal abilities, African Americans performed poorly, much worse than the Europeans. In the second condition they told similar participants that this test was a lab task to see the way people react and solve problems, and the difference in performance disappeared completely. This, along with a similar study by Spencer et. al. In 1977 which featured females solving a math test, confirms the stereotype threat. We can see that because of the stereotype that African Americans have created their own dialect and speak poor English, African Americans did actually perform bad because of fear of actually confirming this stereotype.
As a result, it is easy to conclude that the effects stereotyping has on behavior are many and pivotal. It is essential to categorize them and be able to overcome the sources of these stereotypes, in order to hinder their formation and thus the effects on the receptors.