Word: threatfully
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...members of stigmatized groups, when faced with stressful situations, expect themselves to do worse - a prophecy that fulfills itself. These expectations, which can occur even in otherwise fair (or fair-seeming) situations - such as, say, a standardized test - produce stress and threaten cognitive function. The effect is called "stereotype threat," and African-Americans, girls, even jocks have all been shown susceptible to stereotype threat. (See pictures of the world's most celebrated senior citizens...
...study shows that old people are also vulnerable to the phenomenon. The study isn't the first to show that the aged perform worse under the stress of a stereotype, but it is one of the clearest explanations yet published on how easily stereotype threat compels people to work against themselves. Published in the journal Experimental Aging Research, the study shows that merely reminding people that they are members of a stigmatized group (in this case, older Americans) reliably dampens their performance. Similar people not reminded of their status did significantly better on the tests given for the study...
Research psychologists at North Carolina State University in Raleigh recruited 103 volunteers, ages 60 to 82, to perform simple arithmetic and recall tests. To conduct the experiment, the psychologists manipulated about half of the participants into feeling stereotype threat by telling them that the entire purpose of the tests was "to examine aging effects on memory." That statement was designed to prime the participants' worry that their advanced age would affect their performance. To emphasize the issue of elderliness, the researchers also asked this group of participants to write down their age before beginning the tests...
...contrast, participants in the control group were told that the tests had been constructed to correct for any biases that might be associated with age, a white lie imparted to damp down stereotype threat. These participants weren't asked to write down their...
...little early to judge Salazar's tenure at the Interior Department, and the Secretary may have a point - the ESA wasn't designed to counter a threat as global as global warming. The best way to deal with carbon emissions is to pass national legislation that would create a cap-and-trade program, rather than trying to stretch the ESA to fit a purpose its drafters couldn't have foreseen. But the ongoing battle over the polar bear is a reminder that wildlife will be the first victims of global warming - and that saving them won't be easy...