The ‘‘Obama Effect”: How a salient role model reduces race-based performance differences

Barack Obama, the first Black-American president, has been widely heralded as a role model for BlackAmericans because he inspires hope. The current study was conducted to assess whether, beyond simply inspiring hope, this ‘‘Obama Effect” has a concrete positive influence on Black-Americans’ academic performance. Over a three-month period we administered a verbal exam to four separate groups of Blackand White-American participants at four predetermined times. When Obama’s stereotype-defying accomplishments garnered national attention – just after his convention speech, and election to the presidency – they had a profound beneficial effect on Black-Americans’ exam performance, such that the negative effects of stereotype threat were dramatically reduced. This effect occurred even when concerns about racial stereotypes continued to exist. The fact that we found performance effects with a random sample of American participants, far removed from any direct contact with Obama, attests to the powerful impact of ingroup role models. 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. On the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s ‘‘I have a dream speech” Barack Obama accepted the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) nomination for the US presidency. Sixty-eight days later, Obama became the first Black-American to be elected president. Because of the historic nature of Obama’s candidacy, and subsequent election, the popular media has long paid considerable attention to how Obama serves as a symbol of hope and inspiration and how he will be ‘‘a worthy role model” for BlackAmericans (Reyes, 2008; see also, Gomstyn, 2008; Miller, 2008; Pitts, 2008; Smith, 2009). Although Obama’s status as a role model is undoubtedly clear, it remains to be seen whether the ‘‘Obama Effect” can go beyond simply increasing inspiration to creating more objective, positive outcomes for Black-Americans in domains where they have often contended with negative racial stereotypes. In particular, are there specific time points (e.g., being named the first Black-American presidential candidate from a major political party) where Obama’s stereotype-defying accomplishments garner focused national attention, and thus have a pronounced positive effect on Black-Americans’ academic performance? One widely accepted explanation that accounts for some of the race-based performance differences on academic tests is the theory of stereotype threat (Steele, 1997; Steele & Aronson, 1995). Stereocopy available at: http:// ll rights reserved. earch Fund, from the Owen