New IPR Research: October 2025

This month’s new research from our faculty experts examines how “colorblind” hiring practices can unintentionally reinforce inequality and how structural racism shapes COVID-19 outcomes. It also looks at how beliefs about social mobility influence motivation and health, and how the pressure to be strong for others can carry hidden health costs for Black girls as they grow up.

Policy Discourse & Decision-Making

Why “Colorblind” Policies Can Still Create Inequality

Many employers aim to promote fairness through “colorblind” hiring, but new research shows that even well-intentioned practices can still produce racial inequality. In The Journal of Law & Economics, IPR economist and legal scholar Chika Okafor introduces the concept of social network discrimination—a mechanism by which racial disparities arise without bias or intent. Okafor builds a model of labor markets in which companies rely on employee referrals to hire workers. Even when everyone starts equally qualified, minority workers end up with fewer job opportunities and lower expected wages. This happens because of homophily—people’s natural tendency to form social connections with others like themselves—and because majority groups simply have more members. As a result, majority workers are more likely to receive referral opportunities from their larger, more connected networks. Unlike traditional economic models that attribute discrimination to prejudice or stereotypes, Okafor’s framework shows how inequality can persist even in systems that appear neutral. Using national data on youth social networks, he estimates that social network discrimination creates a welfare gap of up to 3.2% for Black workers. The findings challenge the idea that colorblind policies inherently ensure merit-based outcomes and offer a new rationale for race-conscious approaches wherever social networks influence opportunity—from employment and education to housing and political participation.

Health Inequalities

Explaining Racial Inequities in COVID-19 Outcomes in Chicago

Black and Hispanic/Latino communities across the U.S. have died from COVID-19 at disproportionately high rates, and Chicago is no exception. In the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, IPR anthropologist Thomas McDade, professor of medical social sciences and IPR associate Brian Mustanski, and their colleagues analyze these inequities. In December 2020, the team collected online surveys and dried blood spot samples from nearly 6,000 adults in the Chicago area. They found that Black and Hispanic/Latino participants were more likely than non-Hispanic White participants to test positive for COVID-19 and to have been diagnosed with the disease; they also showed higher antibody concentrations. Hispanic participants reported more severe symptoms and a spatial analysis revealed clusters of high symptom severity in predominantly Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods. When the model accounted for factors like age, living arrangements, occupation, health insurance coverage, chronic conditions, and level of neighborhood disadvantage, the gap in symptom severity between Hispanic/Latino and White participants narrowed but did not disappear. This finding points to the broader and harder-to-measure effects of structural racism on health. The authors call for follow-up studies that track infection timing and transmission networks and collect objective baseline health measures such as blood pressure and lung function. They also recommend including more detailed socioeconomic data and smaller racial and ethnic groups to better understand and address inequities in COVID-19 outcomes. 

Race, Poverty, & Inequality

How Beliefs about Socioeconomic Mobility Guide Motivation and Achievement

What motivates people to try to move up the socioeconomic ladder, and how do their beliefs and identities shape that journey? In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, IPR social psychologist Mesmin Destin and co-author David Silverman review a growing body of research from social psychology, education, public health, sociology, and economics exploring these questions. The authors explain that beliefs about socioeconomic mobility—the upward movement of an individual or family from one social class or economic level to another—are not fixed; rather, they are shaped by the situations and opportunities that young people encounter in their everyday lives. For example, if students hear that college can be affordable or feel their identity is valued by their teachers and school, they’re more likely to believe that moving up is possible. When students believe mobility is possible, they are more likely to envision ambitious futures, stay motivated in school, and persist through challenges. This process, known as identity-based motivation, is reinforced by schools and workplaces that recognize the value of their backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. But the research also shows that success can come at a cost. People who move up the socioeconomic ladder can face challenges like isolation, pressure, and stress that can take a toll on their health. Destin and Silverman argue that schools, workplaces, and public policy need to support not just achievement, but also social connection and wellbeing. 

Education & Human Development

The Hidden Health Costs of Being “Superwoman”

The “Superwoman schema” refers to a coping strategy some Black women learn to manage the stress of being marginalized for both their race and gender. It involves projecting strength, suppressing emotions, showing determination to succeed, and taking care of loved ones around them. In the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, IPR health psychologist Edith Chen and colleagues examine how this schema relates to metabolic syndrome (MetS)—a cluster of risk factors for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke—across adolescence. The study included 256 Black adolescent girls aged 14–19 from lower-income households who completed a Superwoman schema questionnaire and were assessed for MetS using International Diabetes Federation criteria. The researchers find that among younger adolescents, higher scores on the Superwoman schema questionnaire are associated with better cardiometabolic health (lower levels of MetS). However, among older adolescents, higher Superwoman schema scores are tied to worse cardiometabolic health (higher MetS). They also observe associations in late adolescence between a higher Superwoman schema score and experiencing conflicting demands across home, school, and other settings, coupled with a sense of limited control. Overall these patterns suggest that the Superwoman schema shifts from being protective to harmful sometime during late adolescence. They highlight the need to develop ways to foster and preserve the beneficial aspects of the schema, so that as Black girls grow up, Superwoman characteristics can continue to help them thrive. 

Photo credit: iStock

Published: October 30, 2025.