Claude M. Steele, who has been called “one of the few great social psychologists,” offers a vivid first-person account of the research that supports his groundbreaking conclusions on stereotypes and identity. He sheds new light on American social phenomena from racial and gender gaps in test scores to the belief in the superior athletic prowess of black men, and lays out a plan for mitigating these “stereotype threats” and reshaping American identities.

Introduction -- A surprising connection between identity and performance -- Can stereotypes impair performance in more than one group, and in the strongest among them? -- Contingencies of threat: in the lives of Anatole Broyard and Amin Maalouf, and in our own lives -- Stereotype threat in everyone's life -- The efforting life -- The racing mind; or, the mind on stereotype threat -- It's the cues that determine the strength of identity threat -- Reducing identity threat in college -- The distance between us: what causes it and how to bridge it.