This book does an excellent job of explaining this body of work in a way that provides the reader with actionable information about their behavior.These are my notes on Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us by Claude Steele.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?Įveryone's behavior is affected by stereotypes, both by those we ourselves hold about others and by the fear that others will see us through the lense of their own stereotypes.Ĭlaude Steele's research on stereotype threat is groundbreaking, and I truly believe it's something everyone should be aware of. The reader does an excellent job, but in general I don't find that a reader can transform the experience of nonfiction in the same way as fiction. What does DeMario Clarke bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book? Whistling Vivaldi is similar to other excellent psychology books written for the lay audience, such as Dan Gilbert's Stumbling on Happiness or Roy Baumeister's Willpower, in that it conveys a complex and important program of research in way that is engaging and accessible to a lay audience. What other book might you compare Whistling Vivaldi to and why? If you could sum up Whistling Vivaldi in three words, what would they be? The narration was clear and understandable.Īn excellent primer on an important body of resear I would recommend this book because everyone should at least be aware of these experiments and what they might mean. This is a one-trick-pony but it is an interesting pony. Surprising repeatable experiments are the most important thing in science. There is a lot more to understand here, but these experiments were quire surprising. These techniques will not address unfair tests, unfair teachers, and unfair graders, but can help address performance difference due to stereotype threat. These experiments used tests that were designed to be unbiased and fairly measured. The experiments show the interventions work in quite a few cases and some for months, maybe even years. This book basically investigates how well, in what cases, and how long such interventions work. If you instead tell them the test measures 'Sports intelligence' white guys do fine, while black guys choke. For example if you tell a white guy this test measures 'natural sports ability' they will do worse on the test. What seems amazing, and does seem to be demonstrated by reasonable experiments, is that the consequences of stereotype threat can be elevated by incredibly light interventions.

I was not surprised that various subgroup react to various types of stereotype threat that may effect their performance. If the experiments weigh you down in listening, at least fast forward to the results so you can learn what they ultimately found. I was impressed that the author didn't just discuss the effects of stereotypes on people of color, but also discussed testing on the effects of gender on female students' math performance, and why they might struggle in math classes when they are very intelligent and successful in non-math subjects. As a parent of a girl, navigating her way through science and math, and an African American boy, navigating his way through academics in general, I am so glad I found this important book and educated myself on the effects of stereotypes on all of us. Although I found listening to detailed scientific experiments a little heavy at times, it is so important to read and understand the conclusions that Steele found. The author doesn't just voice his opinion, but describes and gives results from painstakingly planned-out experiments that separate out how different groups of people do better and worse in academics, due to often subtle environmental cues that severely affect that performance. I read this book, hoping to find suggestions and scientific results about the role of stereotypes in our society (in the US), and this book was a great place to start. A must-read about the roll of stereotypes

Whistling vivaldi