Stereotype accuracy: Estimating the academic performance of ethnic groups

The authors investigated the accuracy of stereotypes of the academic perfor mance of ethnic groups. Ninety-four participants estimated the mean academi c performance of Toronto high school students from nine ethnic groups and c ompleted measures of right-wing authoritarianism, intelligence, and attitud es toward the groups. The estimated academic performance means were compare d with the true means as derived from data published by the Toronto Board o f Education. These comparisons revealed that, on average, participants were fairly accurate in their perceptions of both the relative standings of gro ups and the magnitude of between-group variability. Underestimation of betw een-group variability was associated with lower authoritarianism, whereas o verestimation of between-group variability was associated with lower intell igence. Attitudes toward a group were significantly correlated with estimat es of the group's mean academic performance, but only for the three groups whose mean academic performance levels were significantly over- or underest imated by participants overall.