Scientific research illuminating the mental health impacts of racism and discrimination and more

People have deeply held beliefs rooted in racial stereotypes about who diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) leaders at companies should be, suggests research in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Researchers showed a press release announcing a new leader at a fictitious company to 499 participants in the United States with hiring experience. Half were told the person was to be the head of finance, and the others were told they were the new head of DEI. The participants were more likely to assume the finance leader would be White while the DEI leader would be non-White. Participants also indicated that traits associated with non-White groups corresponded more strongly with traits required for the DEI leader role. In two additional experiments, the researchers found that 1,414 participants not only assumed non-White individuals to be more committed to social justice and to have personally experienced discrimination but also viewed those traits as the most critical for successful DEI leadership.
DOI: 10.1037/apl0001106

Research on racism and its mental health effects is growing, according to a study in American Psychologist. Researchers conducted a systematic review of the top five psychology journals that publish research on racism and mental health to identify trends in racism research over time. They examined 372 articles on racism published between 1992 and 2022 in American Psychologist, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Journal of Black Psychology, Journal of Counseling Psychology, and The Counseling Psychologist. The researchers found that publications examining racism have steadily increased over the past 3 decades, peaking in 2021 and 2022. The overwhelming majority of the studies were empirical (86%), and most employed cross-sectional designs (87%). The largest increase was in studies focused on people of color’s experiences with racism. Other trends include research on racism’s harmful effects on various groups of people of color and research on White populations’ awareness of racism.
DOI: 10.1037/amp0001317

According to research in Emotion, the more people avoid negative feelings, the less likely they are to identify instances of systemic racism. In the first of two studies, researchers asked 104 university students in the United States to report the extent to which they avoided negative feelings and rate how much racism they perceived in certain situations. They found that the more participants wanted to avoid negative feelings, the less they acknowledged systemic racism. These findings held even after controlling for political ideology, ethnicity, moral foundations, and how people actually felt. In the second study, the researchers randomly assigned 116 participants to a control condition or either an increased or decreased avoidance of negative affect condition—the researchers told the groups that feeling negative emotions was counterproductive or productive for information processing, respectively. Participants in the increased avoidance condition acknowledged systemic racism less than those in the decreased avoidance and control conditions. The findings imply that the desire to avoid negative feelings might be an essential barrier to dismantling racial inequalities.
DOI: 10.1037/emo0001364

A study in JAMA Network Open suggests that racial discrimination can trigger depression and anxiety in some Black adolescents. Researchers asked 1,596 Black adolescents in the United States to fill out a survey about their experiences of interpersonal racial discrimination and their feelings of marginalization. The researchers then acquired fMRI brain imaging data while the participants viewed faces expressing neutral or negative emotions to assess how the amygdala, a brain area involved in threat detection and emotion regulation, reacted under conditions simulating the experience of racial discrimination. The researchers found that the amygdala of about 20% of the participants faced with such experiences essentially shut down. During the initial survey, these participants reported more signs of depression and anxiety associated with feelings of marginalization compared with their peers. For the most part, these participants were also less likely to report outward signs of stress, such as exhibiting anger or acting out.
DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.16491opens in new window

According to a study in Evolutionary Psychology, people view biracial individuals more positively than their monoracial counterparts, potentially because of the historical and genetic implications of their ancestry. Researchers showed 227 White university students in the United States and 116 Asian university students in Beijing and Shanghai a set of 196 photographs depicting faces with varying degrees of White and Asian features. Using advanced graphical morphing software, the researchers blended 100% White and 100% Asian faces into composite images that spanned seven racial categories, from entirely White to entirely Asian, with intermediary stages that reflected different proportions of biracial features. Researchers observed an own-race bias in which both White and Asian participants perceived the biracial composites as more White or Asian than they actually were. They also found that biracial individuals were perceived as more attractive, trustworthy, intelligent, and more likely to be successful than others.
DOI: 10.1177/1474704924123862opens in new window

When assessing graduate program diversity statements, White evaluators may favor Black applicants, suggests research in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. In the first of two studies, researchers asked 206 White university students in the United States and online participants who self-identified as White to evaluate diversity statements that included an image of the applicant. The statements varied only in terms of the applicant’s race (Black or White) and whether the race was disclosed in the text of the statement. They found that the evaluators were more likely to perceive Black applicants as committed to justice and equity and more likely to contribute positively to organizational diversity, leading to a higher likelihood of their admission. The only effect of race disclosure was to increase the perception of the applicants’ contributions to inclusion. Two additional studies with 554 online participants replicated the first study but included a condition in which the applicant’s race was disclosed to higher degrees throughout the diversity statement. Though one study included the applicants’ photos and one did not, the researchers found that in both studies the more explicit references to race had the same effect as the applicant’s image in the first study, suggesting that the mere visual or known racial identity of an applicant may trigger biased perceptions, overshadowing the actual content of the diversity statements.
DOI: 10.1111/jasp.13030opens in new window

A study in Race and Social Problems indicates that self-efficacy and moral disengagement are important predictors of people’s responses to witnessing racial microaggressions. Researchers surveyed 452 racially diverse university students in the United States about the social cognitive predictors (i.e., moral disengagement, empathy, and self-efficacy) of the five steps of the bystander intervention model (i.e., Notice, Interpret, Accept, Know, and Act) in addressing racial microaggressions. They found that moral disengagement was negatively related to each step of the model for White students, but for students of color, moral disengagement was negatively associated only with the Act step. Empathy was positively associated with the Interpret, Accept, and Act steps for White students. For students of color, however, a positive association existed solely between empathy and the Act step. For both White students and students of color, self-efficacy, or confidence in how to intervene, was positively associated with all five steps. The researchers suggested that efforts to address racial microaggressions on college campuses should focus on reducing moral disengagement and increasing empathy and self-efficacy to intervene.
DOI: 10.1007/s12552-024-09412-2opens in new window

According to a study in Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, when it comes to the assessment and treatment of childhood psychopathology, racial biases influence adults’ judgments of children’s behaviors. Researchers interrogated the degree to which a diverse group of people in the United States (82 self-identified Black men, 84 Black women, 1 Black transgender individual, 1 Black gender-fluid individual, 81 White men, and 85 White women) held racial and gender stereotypes about common childhood psychopathology symptoms. They found a consistent pattern where participants more frequently associated behavior with symptoms of oppositional defiance disorder than symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in Black children, particularly boys, than in White children. White adults were more likely to hold this perception than Black adults. The researchers called for the identification of interventions to mitigate the impacts of racial biases to facilitate racial equity in mental health care.
DOI: 10.1007/s10802-024-01189-7opens in new window

A study in Scientific Reports suggests that academia’s commitment to traditional notions of objectivity may contribute to the marginalization of scholars of color in the fields of psychology and management. Researchers interviewed 31 scholars of color and 20 White scholars studying racial issues in the United States. Nearly 90% of the scholars of color reported being questioned about their objectivity, with the underlying implication being that their research is biased, political, or lacking methodological sophistication. In response to such interrogations, scholars of color reported modifying their research presentations to be more palatable to White audiences (e.g., using fewer terms about power, such as “abuse” and “control,” and more terms about positivity, such as “harmony” and “bonding”). These strategies were reflected in an analysis of race-related articles written by scholars of color in 32 psychology and management academic journals. In their interviews, scholars of color also recounted the effort they put into employing rigorous standards for gathering evidence and analyzing data and preparing for presentations, seeking additional training—efforts that were informed by their anticipation of having their objectivity questioned. The White scholars interviewed did not indicate such challenges.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-63236-zopens in new window

Research in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggests that White women in high-power poses are perceived as more masculine compared with Black women in the same poses due to greater perceived violations of gendered racial stereotypes. Across three studies, 1,539 participants in the United States evaluated images of Black and White women adopting power poses in a corporate setting, rating each on perceived masculinity and femininity. The researchers also assessed participants’ sexism toward the women as well as their perceptions of the women’s hiring desirability. The participants perceived White women in high-power poses as more masculine than Black women in the same poses. This differential perception suggests that high-power poses, traditionally associated with masculinity and dominance, were seen as more in line with Black women’s social roles than White women’s social roles. By violating this norm, the White women in high-power poses faced more sexism and were deemed less desirable job candidates—regardless of job status—compared with Black women in similar poses.
DOI: 10.1177/01461672231216041opens in new window

Research in Nature Communication suggests the social organization of cities may influence the strength of implicit racial biases—differential attitudes toward members of distinct racial groups. Researchers examined 2.7 million individuals’ responses on a popular online tool for assessing unconscious racial bias and linked the responses to racial demographics and population data from the U.S. Census to build a model accounting for how individuals learn biases through social networks. They found that implicit racial biases decrease in cities where these networks are larger, more diverse, and less segregated. These results suggest structural explanations for why cities help or hinder citizens from becoming less racially biased—for instance, by segregating different racial groups into different neighborhoods or having shared public spaces where people of diverse backgrounds can interact positively with one another.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45013-8opens in new window

Racism may underlie backlash to requests for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statements as part of job applications, according to research in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. Across three studies, researchers compared how 1,108 participants in the United States reacted to organizations’ requests for statements on DEI, teamwork, and politically conservative values as a function of race (Black vs. White), political conservatism, and symbolic racism. When a DEI (vs. teamwork or values) statement was requested, more conservative participants thought the organization was acting unfairly, expressed less interest in the job, and expected a poorer person-organization fit, even when a job performance-related rationale was provided. Further, more conservative participants viewed the request for a statement about their teamwork contribution or values more favorably. Moreover, the researchers found that anti-Black racism underlies negative reactions to requests for DEI statements among people who identify as conservative.
DOI: 10.1111/joop.12491opens in new window