Stereotyping of an “IITian” M.Arunothia, 13378 Garima, 13273 Tanya Batra, 13740 Vikas Jain, 13788 Submitted to Prof. Kumar Ravi Priya for partial fulfilment of the course requirements for PSY454A, IITK Abstract This project focuses on finding out various preconceptions re- garding the essence of being an IITian. In this project, we surveyed 90 engineering students, spread across the Country with some spe- cific questions regarding the life-style, academics and post-graduation plans of IIT students. Our control group consists of 49 IIT students and 41 non IIT students. Again to get a generalized outlook, we col- lected data from students of different IITs - 4 IIT Bombay, 2 IIT Delhi, 1 IIT Gandhinagar, 2 IIT Hyderabad, 1 IIT Jodhpur, 31 IIT Kanpur, 1 IIT Kharagpur and 7 IIT Madras. We have obtained very interesting results that show the inevitable existence of stereotyping of IIT stu- dents among the out-group and have presented some possible rea- sons for the existence of such stereotyping. We have also analysed as to how this control group perceives IITJEE and have concluded with presenting the pros and cons of the current system. Humanity and Social Sciences Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur 1
Submitted to Prof. Kumar Ravi Priya for partial fulfilment of the courserequirements for PSY454A, IITK
AbstractThis project focuses on finding out various preconceptions re-
garding the essence of being an IITian. In this project, we surveyed90 engineering students, spread across the Country with some spe-cific questions regarding the life-style, academics and post-graduationplans of IIT students. Our control group consists of 49 IIT studentsand 41 non IIT students. Again to get a generalized outlook, we col-lected data from students of different IITs - 4 IIT Bombay, 2 IIT Delhi,1 IIT Gandhinagar, 2 IIT Hyderabad, 1 IIT Jodhpur, 31 IIT Kanpur, 1IIT Kharagpur and 7 IIT Madras. We have obtained very interestingresults that show the inevitable existence of stereotyping of IIT stu-dents among the out-group and have presented some possible rea-sons for the existence of such stereotyping. We have also analysedas to how this control group perceives IITJEE and have concludedwith presenting the pros and cons of the current system.
Humanity and Social SciencesIndian Institute of Technology Kanpur
1 IntroductionIndian Institute of Technology are the most privileged institutes of thecountry and are institutes of national importance. IITs and its studentshave direct impact on the society and are counted as top minds of thenation. Therefore, it becomes necessary to look into the people’s per-ception and notion about the IITs and the students studying in IITs.Through this project, our aim is to find out how different groups, stu-dent studying in IITs and student not studying in IITs, perceive the IITtag and if there is any stereotype associated with the IITs prevails amongthe out-group.
It also becomes important to check the stereotypes because if theyexist among the out-group, it can effect the society adversely. In Indiansociety, a large chunk of high school students prepare for engineeringentrance examinations (especially JEE for admission in IITs). If stereo-types prevail(e.g. high placement packages), they can act as false targetfor the student preparing for the entrance examination. Another ad-verse effect can be association of stereotypes with the IIT students afterthe graduation. Thirdly, if stereotypes prevail among the out-group sec-tion of engineering students who are not studying in IITs, they can bemore harmful because this section of out-group is more influential inthe field of engineering and propagate wrong image of IITs among thesociety.
Keeping above rationale of necessity of finding stereotypes associ-ated with IITs in mind, this project addresses the issue by hypothesisformation and its analysis. The following is the hypothesis made
Hypothesis 1 Engineering Students from Non-IIT colleges have stereo-types associated with the social and academic environment of IITs andtheir students.
We hypothesis that the following stereotypes prevail among the out-group.
Academics IIT students are much more studious and sincere than theusual.
Placements Placement in IITs are much better in terms of annual pack-ages, abroad placements and satisfaction.
Lifestyle IITians do not get enough time for the casual activities.
Career options and Future plans IITians tend to go for MBA, civil ser-vices, placements rather than social services, start-ups, research
Substance Abuse and Suicides The reason for substance abuses amongIITians are due to Academics and other personal issues.
All students who are aspiring for engineering studies as their grad-uate studies generally take IITJEE examination for entrance in IITs.Hence, the students who failed in IITJEE finally form the out-groupwho take admission in non-IIT colleges. Hence, in our second part ofour project, our aim is to analyze, again among IIT and non-IIT students,
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whether ITIJEE is a good measure for entrance into top engineering in-stitutes of the nation. The following question is posed and analyzedqualitatively:
Qualitative Analysis How much good a measure, IITJEE can be con-sidered for admission into the IITs?
2 Methodology
2.1 SampleWe collected data from IIT students (varied across different IITs) and nonIIT engineering students (varied across the Country). The rationalebehind choosing such a sample is
• The data from the IIT students provide us with the actual measureor the right answer for our questions, using which we compare theresults of the Non IIT engineering students.
• We decided to restrict our out-group only to non IIT engineeringstudents because we felt they are the most influential people in thefield of engineering. Hence, their thoughts and mind-set about IITis of our main concern.
• To make our hypothesis work for a general scenario, we tried ourbest make our sample spread across all IITs and across the Coun-try for the non IIT students. The detailed description of our datacollection is given the following section.
2.2 Data CollectionA questionnaire[] is formed(google form) consisting of basic questionsregarding Academics, Placements, Lifestyle, Career options and futureplans and Substance abuse in IITs. The form is floated among IIT andnon IIT students. 49 students from IITs filled the survey (4 IIT Bombay,2 IIT Delhi, 1 IIT Gandhinagar, 2 IIT Hyderabad, 1 IIT Jodhpur, 31 IITKanpur, 1 IIT Kharagpur and 7 IIT Madras) and 41 students from variouscolleges other than IITs filled the survey.
Following were the attributes associated with the data collection:
• It was not mentioned anywhere that the survey is to check stereo-types associated with the IITs.
• The form formed was completely anonymous and college name wasthe only personal information asked.
• Individual could not see the responses filled by other individuals, ithelps in ensuring unanimity in the answers and also that individ-uals are not influenced by the responses of the other individuals.
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For our qualitative analysis part, we took data in the same form usedabove for hypothesis data collection as different section. Around 40people in total filled the answers for the questions regarding IITJEE, outof which number of data from IIT and non-IIT students were equal(∼20)
2.3 Data AnalysisFor the hypothesis testing, the following questions were asked in thesurvey and the corresponding responses were recorded as shown.
2.3.1 Academics
• How do IITians prepare for exams ?
Figure 1: IIT Students Figure 2: Non IIT Students
• Time devoted by IIT students for self study (on per day basis)
Figure 3: IIT Students Figure 4: Non IIT Students
• What do you think will be the average attendance of lectures atIITs? ?
Figure 5: IIT Students
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Figure 6: Non IIT Students
• What do you think is the average CPI(CGPA, on scale of 10) of anIIT student?
Figure 7: IIT Students Figure 8: Non IIT Students
2.3.2 Placements
• What is the average package(per annum) that the students at IITsrecieve ?
Figure 9: IIT Students Figure 10: Non IIT Students
• How much satisfied do you think the students at IITs get after theirplacements ?
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Figure 11: IIT Students Figure 12: Non IIT Students
2.3.3 Life Style
• The percentage of IIT students devoting time for their passion.
Figure 13: IIT Students Figure 14: Non IIT Students
• How much hygiene do you think is maintained by the students atIITs?
Figure 15: IIT Students Figure 16: Non IIT Students
• Do you think IIT students find time for festival celebrations andcasual travel plans with family/friends?
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Figure 17: IIT Students Figure 18: Non IIT Students
2.3.4 Career options and Future plans
• What is your guess on the percentage of students at IITs who preferto go for the MBA after graduation?
Figure 19: IIT Students Figure 20: Non IIT Students
• What is your guess on the percentage of students at IITs who preferto go for Masters/PhD after graduation?
Figure 21: IIT Students Figure 22: Non IIT Students
• What is your guess on the percentage of students at IITs who preferto go for Civil Services after graduation?
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Figure 23: IIT Students Figure 24: Non IIT Students
• What is your guess on the percentage of students at IITs who preferto go for Jobs at MNCs after graduation?
Figure 25: IIT Students Figure 26: Non IIT Students
2.3.5 Substance Abuse
• What do you think are the reasons for substance abuse among IITstudents?
Figure 27: IIT Students Figure 28: Non IIT Students
• Are IIT students more prone to suicides??
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Figure 29: IIT Students Figure 30: Non IIT Students
For the Qualitative Analysis, the following questions were asked inthe survey and the corresponding responses were recorded as shown.
2.3.6 A student who has cleared JEE, is he/she reliably in the topstudents of the nation? If not, why so?
14 people felt it is a yes. 4 people just answered No. The others answeredas follows
• No. Physics, Chemistry and Math alone cannot determine a per-son’s intelligence and knowledge.
• Not necessarily. He/She may have cleared the toughest entranceexam, but any exam can be cracked with a little effort.
• A 6 hour or so examination cannot really reflect the smartness ofa person.
• No, he may have used tricks or other unfair means for doing so.
• Most of the people who get through are certainly among the top-notch but this statement is not valid for all because of the presenceof resources like coaching institutes that train a person for a par-ticular kind of paper. Even an average person can get through bygiving 2 years in solving particular kind of questions. So essen-tially selected students are good learners but not the best minds.
• No, it is possible for a few to clear without being in the top bycontinuous practice etc.
• NO. In JEE, there also comes the ’luck’ factor.
• No, depends on the day of exam
• I guess no metric is perfect. But JEE does pretty well although notthe very best, I am afraid.
• Generally he is among the top students academically if not in theoverall sense.After all JEE is the toughest exam of the world.
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• Top in what sense needs to be defined in general. For instance, noiitian has ever become the prime minister of country. But most stu-dents with their sheer hard work earn a decent respectable earningin the society. They may not be the best but they are not bad also.
• Yes, but there are many talented students who can’t afford to pre-pare for the same
• No, it just reveals that they are talented in studies. Studies is notthe only expectation from a true student, there is a lot more. Sadpart is that students don’t realize the fact. Just 1 exam does notdecide that.
• No, all students who clear JEE may not have the same potentialand IQ level
• There might be many factors due to which students can’t performwell in JEE. E.g: facilities
• This is a subjective question and depends on the context. If youmean top students in STEM, then yes most of them are at the topbut not the only ones. But if you mean top student in terms ofability then no.
• Not necessary, though it depends on the type of the questions andfurther there are people who are more deserving to be on the topof the nation, but due to certain reasons, they fail to be classifiedso
• No, because of the reservation system
• No, he might be better at solving maths, physics and chemistry,but this does not imply that he is good in all fields.
2.3.7 What better alternatives or suggestions do you have for JEE?
The responses recorded are as mentioned below
• Some questions from English also should be added,so that stu-dents will be preparing for that also and students those come fromHindi medium background will not have a problem in their first fewsemesters.
• Series of examinations, maybe in a span of month with some screen-ing and the increase of difficulty
• Personal interview based selection
• A SAT type exam many times a year, followed by other evaluationslike essays, past achievements etc.
• JEE shouldn’t be on a single day. The two papers can be organizedon two different days. Or the three subjects on three different days
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• College admission should be as those for foreign universities whereall the aspects are considered. Its true that learning an art formis no way useful for studying in IIT but by doing this we couldencourage students to learn. Hobbies are not important but arenecessary .
• More tougher exam should be taken.
• Well current JEE is doing more than fine. Its the procedure thatstarts after JEE and the academic systems of IITs that need fixing.Like choosing major and which IIT campus to join. No of coursesand workload a student can handle in a semester, more flexibilityin choosing courses of owns choice etc etc.
• The pattern of the paper shouldn’t be fixed so that students shouldget prepared for any type of paper
• Maybe have an admission exam for each department, with thequestions being basics needed in this field.
3 Findings
3.1 Findings of the survey on hypothesis testingThe results of the survey are very informative and similar to a largeextent with what we hypothesised.
• AcademicsIt is clear from the survey results on academics that IIT studentsare stereotyped as more studious and academic oriented by thenon- IIT peers.
– It is evident from the responses of non- IIT students, a greatmajority of whom believe that IITians study on a regular basison contrary to IIT’ians belief that they study a night before theexams.
– It is also supported by the finding that non-IIT students be-lieve that the attendence in lectures at IITs is around 60-80%unlike to their IIT peers who say that it is actually ranges from30-60%
– The results on two more questions , namely the average CPIand time devoted on self study, are also inline with the hy-pothesis but there has not been a clear demarcation based onthese two answers unlike the first two
• Placements
– It is evident from the survey results that the placements ofIITians have been overhyped in the society. The findings of the
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survey question which asked about the average annual pack-age of IIT students reveals that most of the students from theout-group (Non IIT students) believe that the IITians are paidmore and their average income is around 10-25 lakhs but theactual scenario which the IITians themselves have reported isthat their average income ranges from 1-10 lakhs per annum.
– The great in-group and out-group bias can been seen whenasked about the level of satisfaction which the IITians get af-ter their placements. There has been a tough call between‘pretty much’ and ‘not so much’ for the IIT students,but noneof them said that the IITians are ‘very much’ satisfied withtheir placements but for the out group i.e the non-IIT stu-dents, most them (61%) believe that IITians are ‘pretty much’satisfied and there is a significant section which believe thatsome of the IITians are even very much satisfied with theirplacements
So, to sum up, the hypothesis that there is a significant differencein the way the people inside and outside IIT perceives the place-ments in IITs is correct to a large extent.
• Lifestyle
– When IITians were asked about the percentage of students de-voting time to their passion, they reported that less than 30%of the students does so. On the other hand, when this ques-tion was asked to the non- IIT students, most of them believethat around 60-70% students devote time to their passion
– The responses of the question on the time the IIT students getto spend with their family and friends reveals that the boththe in-group and out-group hold almost the same opinion onthis, most of them believe that they get enough time to spendwith their dear ones.
– Also, the responses on the extent of hygiene the IIT studentsmaintain also reveals almost the same thinking of both thein-group and out-group, the only difference is the percentageof IITians who say that very much hygiene is maintained is farless than the non-IIT students who feel so.
So, from the collected data we found that there are not significantstereotypes associated with the lifestyle of students at IITs and boththe in-group and out-group hold almost the same opinion on this.Hence, we observe that the collected data do not support our hy-pothesis on lifestyle.
• Career options and future plansTo get an idea about what the students outside IIT perceives abouttheir peers at IITs taking up their career option and what the
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IITians actually think about themselves and their friends in IITspursuing their career as, we asked different questions about dif-ferent career options and observed the following findings
– MBA- Most of the non-IIT students believe that around 25-50% IITians pursue management after graduation unlike theIITians who reported that this figure is only less than 25%
– Masters and PhD- Although the majority in both the groupsbelieve that less than 25% students go for Masters and Phd,but there is a significant difference in the percentage of stu-dents who believe so. This actually a bit contradicts from ourhypothesis, we found out from the data that the non-IIT stu-dents perceives their IIT peers going for higher education morethan what the IIT students actually themselves do
– Civil Services-From the survey we observed that there aresignificant number of non -IIT students who believe that morethan 75% of students at IITs go for civil services after gradu-ation and yet more significant number believe that 50-75% ofIITians join civil services after graduating. It is really interest-ing to see that none of the IIT students believe that more than50% students go for civil services. This shows a great distinc-tion between the what the out group thinks and what actuallyis the reality according to the IIT students. This finding is ex-actly in line with our hypothesis and completely supports it.
– MNcs- Most of the IITians believe that around 50-75% of theirpeers join MNCs after graduation and there is a very less num-ber of students who believe that more than 75% students goand join MNCs which is in straight contradiction to the resultsobtained from the non-IIT students, most of whom believe thatmore than 75% of the IITians join MNCs after graduation. Thisresearch finding also supports our hypothesis on how non- IITstudents perceive their IITian peers on choosing their careeroption
• Substance AbuseWhen surveyed about the reasons behind IITians consuming alco-hol, most of the IITians supported the fact that it’s just a trend buta majority of the non-IITians had the opinion that it is self initiated.This is inline with our hypothesis that IITians are stereotyped asbeing more involved in consuming alcohol and drugs
• SuicidesWhen the question about whether IITians are more prone to sui-cides was asked to the non - IIT students around 54% of themwere in the favour of the argument but on contrary when it wasgiven to the IITians only 24% said yes. This clearly indicates thestereotype associated with the IITians that they are more prone tosuicides and substance abuse.
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3.2 Qualitative Analysis FindingsIITians and non-IIT students were asked about whether the IITians arereally the top students of the nation and the answers were really in-teresting. Most of the students said that IITians are the best brainsbecause they clear the toughest exam of the world but there were somewho believe that its only because of the coaching which the studentstake get them into IITs and getting admission into an IIT does not depictthat you are smart enough as you can clear an entrance exam just byputting in great efforts.When the students were asked about the alternatives or suggestionsthey have for JEE, there were many varied answers. The variety in an-swers can be attributed to the sources from which we took the data.Those who were able to clear the Joint Entrance Exam, most of themfeel that the current screening system of JEE is absolutely fine, butthey want to have more department specific screening exams.They alsowant to have some more difficult questions. On the other hand, therewas a set of people who just missed clearing the Entrance exam so theyfeel that JEE should not be on a single day and there should be morequestions which test the overall personality rather than just maths andscience.These research findings were quite in line with what we studied in TheUltimate Attribution Error theory. Those who are in in-group attributetheir success to their hard work, intelligence and intellect whereas thoseof the out group (who could not clear JEE) see the IITians as being for-tunate enough to go to coachings and attribute their success to theexternal factors like coaching classes, lucky day etc.
4 DiscussionsOur findings support the The illusory correlation paradigm as givenin the the book The Formation of Meaningful Beliefs about Social Groupsby Craig McGarty, Vincent Y. Yzerbyt, Russell Spears.
”Illusory correlation is the phenomenon of perceiving a re-lationship between variables (typically people, events, or be-haviors) even when no such relationship exists” [1]
”· · · the term illusory correlation refers to the perception of covariationbetween two classes of stimuli that are uncorrelated, or less stronglycorrelated than perceived” [2]
In our study, we can see that, just by the fact that a student is study-ing at IIT, there are a lot of presumptions made about that student indifferent contexts. For example, in the field of Academics, all that anout-group person knows about an IITian is the very fact that he/she issmart enough to clear IITJEE. In our qualitative analysis, we see that
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many people still feel that IITJEE is not the right measure. Even afterthis discrepancy regarding IITJEE persisting, out-group members seemto correlate the event of ”clearing IITJEE” wrongly with the event of thestudent being ”extremely studious, sincere(like attending classes regu-larly, etc”. This clearly is an example supporting the illusory correlationparadigm of stereotyping.
Again in case of placements, the out-group members seem to wronglycorrelate the known smartness of IITians with the pay packages theyget. We do not report this in any negative sense. We particularly thinkthat such stereotyping exists among the out-group members because itis much easier for them to make such correlations than for them to tryand find out the truth.
In case of life-style there does not seem to be much of stereotyping. Thiswe think should be due to the fact that our out-group members are noneother than our own engineering peers working in other colleges. Hence,they have no necessity to arrive at any assumptions (by correlating withperformance in IITJEE) in case of life-style because they themselves areliving the life of an engineering student. Therefore, in this case, ourhypothesis turns out to be incorrect.
It is a shocking to see how the out-group has extended the correlation toeven areas like career options, substance abuse and suicides as theseextensions can have very high implications. Famous men like ChetanBhagat, Arvind Kejrival, etc have received both extra reputations andunwanted critics just due to the existence of such stereotyping. As thereare both pros and cons to the scenario, the net effect remains neutral.
5 ConclusionsWe conclude the following about our Hypothesis• The out-group of peers think that IIT students are more studious
and academically oriented than reported by IITians themselves.• They assume that placement in IITs are much better in terms of
annual packages, abroad placements and satisfaction.• There does NOT seem to be any stereotyping in the field of life-style
contradicting our assumption.• The out-group believe that IITians tend to go for MBA, civil services,
placements rather than social services, start-ups, research.• The out-group seems to believe that IITians are more prone to sui-
cides. They also believe that substance abuse is majorly self-driventhough the IITians have reported that peer-pressure and the exis-tence of such trend are the major reasons.
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From our qualitative analysis on IITJEE, we conclude that there defi-nitely exists a discrepancy over whether IITJEE is the right measure ofselecting candidates for IITs. From the suggestions given by the stu-dents, it is clear that there should be a committed team working on un-derstanding the current scenario and bettering the system. We think itwould take a great deal of commitment and effort to figure out a betteralternative for IITJEE. Nevertheless, things can become the best.
References[1] Wikipedia. Illusory correlation — wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,
2015. [Online; accessed 15-April-2016].[2] Russell Spears Craig McGarty, Vincent Y. Yzerbyt. Stereotypes as Ex-
planations: The Formation of Meaningful Beliefs about Social Groups.Cambridge University Press, 2002.
