Fear of Success Drops Minority IQ Scores.

Students from minority backgrounds may earn lower scores on standardized tests because they fear that academic success will alienate them from friends or family members and arouse suspicion among teachers, a University of Iowa, Iowa City, study has discovered. Michael Lovaglia, professor of sociology, found that a person's performance on a standardized test is strongly affected by what he or she expects from a high score. For example, students from minority groups may expect that their teachers will suspect them of cheating or that their friends will consider them "nerds" if they achieve a high score.

The study provides an explanation of why many...