Dumb Jock Stereotypes In Sports

Athletics and Academic Success: Abandoning the Stereotype

Over time and especially today, there has been a common misconception that students who participate in athletics or team sports are more likely to be less accomplished (in terms of academic success) than those students who are not and John R. Gerdy’s “Americas Failed Experiment with Elite Athletics” is a prime example of this false belief. Teachers and faculty members often devalue athletics and some even feel that it is a poor representation of such. Often time’s parents or guardians are reluctant or in opposition to allowing their children to get involved in sports because they believe it will derail their learning and/or achievement in school. The majority of those people who presume

One study suggested that the worry of potentially confirming the “dumb jock” stereotype might be to blame for any performance gap between student athletes and non-student athletes (Moltz, 2009). Teachers and professors are directly linked to the athletes academic success, and negative perceptions of student athletes in the classroom is a paramount matter because they are exposing them to the stigma attached to athletic participation. This is problematic because when the students are made aware of this bias their academic performance declines because they feel more anxious and pressured as to not confirming the dumb jock stigma, a phenomenon known as stereotype threat. Some studies even show that these stereotyped groups actually perform better than

This term was first used by Steele and Aronson (in 1995) who showed in several experiments that Black college freshmen and sophomores performed more poorly on standardized tests than White students when their race was emphasized and when it was not emphasized, Black students performed better and equivalently with White students. The results of this experiment highlight that performance in academic settings can be harmed by the awareness that one's behavior might be viewed through the lens of not just racial stereotypes, but any stereotype. Currently, there have been over 300 experiments on stereotype threat that have been published in peer-reviewed journals which goes to show the importance and much needed attention of this ever prevalent epidemic. In the abundance of these different research experiments, they have come to show that the consequences of stereotype threat are extended beyond just underachievement on academic tasks. It can also lead to self-handicapping strategies, reduced sense of belonging to the stereotyped group, and after consistent exposure to stereotype threat, it can reduce the degree that individuals value the stereotyped group in question (Yopyk & Prentice, 2010). In education, it can also lead students to choose not to pursue that area of study where they felt threatened by a stereotype and as a consequence therefore limit the range of professions that