Race, Racial Bias, and Prejudice
Racial Discrimination in Hiring Across the Globe
What role do race and ethnicity play in hiring discrimination? In a study in the Annual Review of Sociology, IPR sociologist Lincoln Quillian and Arnfinn Midtbøen of the University of Oslo examine over 140 field experimental studies of discrimination in the hiring of various racial and ethnic groups across 30 countries. All studies compare fictitious job applicants who have similar resumes, except that one applicant appears to be White and the other
appears to be a member of another racial or ethnic group. The researchers summarize seventeen key conclusions regarding hiring discrimination across the globe. Findings include that White ethnic groups experience hiring discrimination but much less than Non-White ethnoracial groups, discrimination in hiring against racial and ethnic minorities is a worldwide phenomenon, larger employers and public-sector employers tend to have lower rates of discrimination, and over the last 25 years, discrimination rates in the United States and the United Kingdom have not changed. Additionally, first- and second-generation immigrants experience similar levels of discrimination.
Policy Insights for Increasing Organizational Diversity
Diversity training in organizations is limited in its ability to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace on its own, according to a recent paper published in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences by Kellogg social psychologist and IPR associate Ivuoma Ngozi Onyeador and her colleagues. They analyze prior research and typical components of diversity training in organizations and find that training focused on implicit bias, or unconscious prejudices, increases knowledge about such prejudices but does not reliably reduce the bias itself. When organizations focus on implicit bias in their trainings meant to address underrepresentation, that focus can absolve the majority group of responsibility—since the biased employees may view their actions as a result of “unconscious” or implicit bias beyond their awareness. Onyeador and colleagues delivered three important recommendations for organizations who want to address diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace: First, they must educate members about bias, and the organization’s efforts to address diversity, equity, and inclusion. Second, the organization must prepare for, rather than preemptively accommodate potential defensiveness from majority group members, and third, the company must implement structures that encourage organizational responsibility for their goals in this area. Following these recommendations, Onyeador and colleagues argue, will improve organizations’ diversity strategies.
Studying Racial/ Ethnic Identity Among White Youth
White youth, like all youth in the United States, grow up in a system of racial inequity, yet little research exists about how they make sense of their racial identity. IPR developmental psychologist Onnie Rogers and Ursula Moffitt of Wheaton College Massachusetts offer insights on framing and conducting research on how White youth understand their own racial identity in the Journal of Research on Adolescence. The researchers discuss the history of research on racial and ethnic identity development and argue that it is necessary to use different measures to understand racial identity development among White youth versus Black or Latinx youth. Helms’ White Racial Identity Development (WRID) model, or a two-phase model that examines internalization and challenges to the racist status quo, offers one framework for a contextualized study of White identity. The researchers used this model in previous research and suggest that children are aware of race at a young age, but their ability to make sense of race and racism can change with experiential knowledge and greater cognitive ability. Finally, the researchers urge scholars to use models designed to assess Whiteness in context, move beyond age-related changes to explain development, reflect on how their own identities shape their work, and apply an anti-racist lens when using terms and constructs when conducting research on racial identity among White youth.
Children’s Racial Identity Development and Black Lives Matter
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has become a political movement shifting public and political conversations about race after protests erupted following the death of Michael Brown in 2014. In Developmental Psychology, IPR development psychologist Onnie Rogers and her colleagues examine changes 
Directions for Vaccinating Children Against Racism: Treating Racism as a Virus
During the COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately affected Black Americans, many around the United States watched the murder of George Floyd by a police officer, a racist experience that was not new for Black youth. In the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, pediatrician and IPR associate Nia Heard-Garris and her colleagues discuss how racism is a social virus analogous to infectious viruses such as the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Structural racism is embedded within our societal structures and unfairly advantages certain racial or ethnic groups over others, and this is a common lived experience of racially minoritized groups in the U.S. The researchers note that viruses, which need a host to survive, impact more susceptible people, and in the same way, people who seek dominance and rely on patterned behaviors are likely to be “host” for racist behaviors. The authors argue that racism is comparable to an endemic virus that continues to circulate because it is woven into the fabric of American society, including the medical profession. Viruses can be pandemic or endemic, and the authors point out that racism is endemic in American society. Racism can spread through harmful practices, like when parents reinforce racial hierarchies or promote mistrust of racial groups. These harmful practices can negatively impact both the physical and mental health of children. The authors argue that parents should socialize their children about race in healthy ways to acknowledge racism within society and reduce the spread of prejudice. They also suggest mental health professionals receive training programs to combat racism, which can support the wellbeing of children and adolescents.
Building Support for Parent-Child Conversations About Race
Should White parents have conversations about race and racism with their children? Prior research suggests that with a lack of evidence supporting the value and impact of White parent-child conversations about race, it is safer to postpone these conversations since the effects are unknown. In Perspectives on Psychological Science, however, IPR psychologist Sylvia Perry and her colleagues argue that White parents can and should have these conversations with their children. The researchers review theoretical and empirical literature about the psychological effects of parents talking to children about topics such as race. They estimate that 30% of White parents are already attempting to introduce their children to the reality of racism in the United States. Support for race conversations in White families is further boosted by research showing parent-child conversations are beneficial for navigating tough emotions and a child’s sexual health. Additionally, the researchers find a lack of evidence suggesting that nonverbal behaviors, such as visible discomfort on part of the parents, will increase racial biases, as other researchers state. Although Perry and her co-authors understand that more empirical evidence to support their conclusion is needed, they call for White parents to act due to the urgency of the issue and the positive outcomes for children and society.
Addressing and Improving the Wellbeing of Black Medical Students
Self-affirmation interventions, when individuals indicate their own values or strengths, have been effective for Black students in many educational contexts, but they have not been tested in medical schools, where Black students also experience negative stereotypes that threaten their success. In the Journal of Social Issues, IPR psychologist Sylvia Perry and her colleagues test, for the first time, whether a self-affirmation intervention can improve Black medical students’ wellbeing. The researchers used an experimental design to randomly assign 234 Black and 182 White medical students from 50 U.S. schools to either the self-affirmation intervention group or control group. Between September 2014–May 2015, during their second year of medical school, the students received three online surveys. The surveys measured students’ feelings of wellbeing and belonging, their perceptions of being accepted into a top-10 residency (competitiveness), and their goal stability compared to White students over the academic year. The students in the self-affirmation group ranked their values and wrote about why their highest-ranked value was meaningful to them. The results show that Black students self-report more fatigue and less belonging than White students, and the intervention did not improve Black students’ fatigue, depression, anxiety, belonging, or perceived residency competitiveness. However, the research finds the intervention helps keep Black students’ residency goals consistent. Perry and her colleagues’ study underscores interventions are needed to support Black medical students’ success and address the underrepresentation of Black medical professionals in the U.S.
Public Perceptions of Girls and the Punitive Consequences
Black women and girls are punished—through suspension, arrests, and incarceration—at alarmingly higher rates in the United States. In an IPR working paper, social policy expert Sally Nuamah investigates the public perceptions shaping the punitive experiences of Black women and girls. In a survey experiment of 1,466 adults conducted in March 2020, she presented participants with a scenario in which a student violated the school’s dress code policy by wearing shorts. They were randomly presented with one of four names common among particular racial and gender groups—Keisha (Black girl), Emily (White girl) Jamal (Black boy), and Jake (White boy)—as the violator of the dress code. The participants were then asked a series of questions about their perception of the student. The findings show participants perceived Emily and Keisha as older than the male students, but Keisha was viewed as significantly more dangerous, experienced with sex, and appropriately punished for violating the dress code by being suspended. The results reveal that Black girls suffer from more severe forms of punishment because of their gender and race. This work has serious implications on research related to the impacts of Black women and girls’ punishment for democracy at large.
Native American Inequality
In the first wide-scale examination of Native American inequality in 30 years, IPR sociologist Beth Redbird is examining the ways in which changing tribal structures and processes are affecting well-being and inequality. Since the last study of this scale, there have been multiple important developments across Native American lands and tribes, including gaming, energy projects, expanded health and social services, and the advent of tribal colleges. Redbird is using the Decennial Census, American Community Survey, Current Population Survey, and General Social Survey, paying particular attention to whether shifts in inequality are seen between different tribes or between members of the same tribe. She presented some of her findings in a seminar co-sponsored by IPR and the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR). She reported that although Native American communities have invested substantially in education, the employment rate and wage growth have both declined. Overall changes in the U.S. economy have especially impacted Native peoples, Redbird notes, including the loss of a large number of jobs in construction and manufacturing, the decline of the minimum wage, and the increase in unstable employment.
The Impact of Vicarious Racism During COVID-19 on Mental Health
During the COVID-19 pandemic, experiences of vicarious racism—hearing about racism directed toward one’s racial group or racist acts committed against other racial group members—and vigilance about racial discrimination have been prominent. In Public Health Reports, IPR developmental psychologist Onnie Rogers, in collaboration with project lead David Chae of Tulane University and their co-authors, study the relation vicarious racism and vigilance about racial discrimination have to symptoms of depression and anxiety among Asian and Black Americans. The researchers used data from a cross-sectional study of 604 Asian Americans
The Life Expectancy Gap Between Black and White Americans Compared to Europe
The Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19 pandemic’s disproportionate impact on the U.S.’s Black population has shed light on the life expectancy gap between Black Americans and other Americans. In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, IPR economist Hannes Schwandt, Northwestern undergraduate Beatrice Chao (2022), and colleagues from 17 U.S. and European research institutions in the U.S. and Europe examine mortality trends and racial gaps in the United States between 1990 to 2018 and compare them to six countries in Europe. The researchers compared mortality rates in 1990, 2005, and 2018 for Black Americans, White Americans, and Europeans from England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Spain. They looked at death rates for individuals across four age groups: 0 to 4, 5 to 19, 20 to 64, and 65 to 79. The researchers find that life expectancy increased for Black Americans across all age ranges in both high- and low-income areas, with the gap between Black and White Americans falling 48.9%. Despite these improvements, income-based life expectancy gaps remain starker in the United States than in European countries. Moreover, European mortality improved more strongly over the past decades and even economically advantaged U.S. populations, such as White Americans living in the highest-income areas, experience higher mortality at all ages than Europeans in 2018. The researchers argue that it is important to understand which medical, social, and policy developments helped to increase the life expectancy of Black Americans and how those changes can close the longevity gap between Black and White Americans in the following decades. Further, mortality rates of both Black and White Americans could fall much further in both high-income and low-income areas.
Addressing Black Immigrant Women's Mental Health Stigmas
Individuals may directly experience stigma against mental illness, consisting of negative attitudes, beliefs, or discrimination expressed by others, or they may perceive stigma as a community-wide mindset about persons with mental illness. Whether direct or perceived, the stigma is known to be a barrier to mental health treatment and an underlying cause of health inequities. Little is known about stigma associated with mental illness among the 4.3 million Black immigrants to the U.S. In the Journal of Mental Health and Clinical Psychology, IPR associate Crystal Clark, a psychiatrist and behavioral scientist, and her colleagues pilot a small study of Black immigrant women to learn more about the cultural issues that may influence their sense of mental illness stigma. The researchers created a new measurement tool, the Stigma and Culture Survey, and administered it in 2019 to 22 women recruited from two Black immigrant community centers in Chicago. They also used a standard tool, the Depression Self Stigma Scale. With both scales, they find that women who use activities like prayer to cope with mental health needs and who believe that mental illness is caused by sin or evil spirits have higher stigma scores. Those who used religious counseling had lower stigma scores. Low socioeconomic status was also associated with higher stigma scores, but women who were citizens had lower scores, perhaps due to acculturation over time. The researchers hope their findings will inform interventions to break down stigma around mental illness among Black immigrants.