W4 chasp

Week 4: Discrimination, Stigma, and Health

Forms of Discrimination

  • Overt Discrimination

    • Definition: Explicit display of unequal treatment

    • Characteristics:

    • Direct and intentional

    • Examples: Physical assault, verbal harassment, vandalism, etc.

  • Subtle Discrimination

    • Definition: Implicit, covert, often ambivalent forms of discrimination

    • Characteristics:

    • Indirect and can be intentional or unintentional

    • Examples: Verbal cues, subtle behaviors that imply discrimination

Impact of Discrimination on Health

  • General Consequences:

    • Discrimination is linked to lower general well-being (Schmitt et al., 2014)

    • Associated health issues include:

    • Obesity: Hunte & Williams (2009)

    • High blood pressure:

      • Brondolo et al. (2003)

      • Dolezsar et al. (2014)

      • Din-Dzietham et al. (2004)

    • Cardiovascular diseases:

      • Chae et al. (2010, 2012)

      • Lewis et al. (2014)

    • Glycated hemoglobin levels: Piette et al. (2006)

    • Coronary artery calcification: Lewis et al. (2006)

    • Oxidative stress: Szanton et al. (2012)

    • Poor mental health outcomes (Williams & Mohammed, 2009; Gee et al., 2007), including psychosis, mood, and anxiety disorders.

Mechanisms: Why is Discrimination Detrimental to Health?

  • Racism as a Stressor

    • It affects various systems:

    • Cardiovascular System

    • Immune System

    • Causes accelerated aging (Berger & Sarnyai, 2014; Goosby & Heidbrink, 2013).

  • Social Status and Health:

    • Both animal and human studies indicate that lower social status correlates with poorer health (Sapolsky, 2006; McEwen & Seeman, 1999).

  • Economic Factors:

    • Poverty restricts access to resources necessary for coping with stressors.

Subtle Discrimination: Impacts on Health

  • Comparative Detriments:

    • Negative work-related outcomes from subtle discrimination can be worse than those from overt discrimination (Dhanani et al., 2018).

    • Meta-analysis reveals various correlates of subtle discrimination (Jones et al., 2016):

    • Individual work correlates:

      • Career success, job satisfaction, job stress

    • Organizational correlates:

      • Job withdrawal, turnover behavior, job performance

    • Physical health correlates:

      • Substance use, smoking, exercise persistence, food selection, symptomology, cardiovascular health, body size

    • Psychological health correlates:

      • Satisfaction with life, self-esteem; stress and strain leading to depression, anxiety; emotions such as anger and irritability; symptomology including posttraumatic stress, psychological distress, and dysfunction.

Challenges of Subtle Discrimination

  • Inhibition of Help-Seeking:

    • Stigma associated with issues (e.g., obesity stigma) can inhibit individuals from seeking assistance (Magallares et al., 2014).

  • Cognitive Depletion:

    • The burden of managing subtle discrimination can lead to cognitive depletion (Walker et al., 2021).

  • Frequency and Access to Resources:

    • Frequent exposure in small interactions can create disadvantages in resource accessibility.

The Role of Stereotypes

  • Impact of Stereotypes on Behaviour:

    • Stereotypes can influence both the behaviour of the holder and the recipient, potentially leading to stereotype-confirming behaviours.

    • Potentially affecting employment opportunities through biased interactional styles.

Studies on Racial Interactions in Employment

  • Word et al. (1974) Study:

    • Examined if white interviewers adopted different interactional styles with Black vs. White candidates.

    • Variations studied include:

    • ‘Race’ of applicant

    • Non-verbal behavior of interviewers - immediacy

    • Performance of the applicant.

  • Study 1 & Study 2:

    • Manipulated applicant's race (Black/White confederates) and measured:

    • Distance (significant)

    • Eye contact (not significant)

    • Length of interview (significant).

  • Study 2 Metrics:

    • Manipulated distance and length and measured performance, mood, attitude, and reciprocation of immediacy.

Connection to Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

  • Nonverbal cues lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, which explains disadvantages in employment.

  • Interviewers treated Black applicants differently — sitting farther away, making more speech errors, and ending interviews sooner.

  • When White applicants were treated with the same nonverbal cues, their performance declined — they appeared less confident and competent.

  • This shows that nonverbal behaviour can mediate self-fulfilling prophecies: expectations about a person can subtly shape how they’re treated, which in turn affects how they perform.

Typology of Subtle Discrimination (Sue et al., 2007)

  • Microassaults:

    • Definition: Explicit racial derogations that are intentional and conscious.

  • Microinsults:

    • Definition: Rudeness or insensitivity that is often unintentional or unconscious, conveying a demeaning approach.

  • Microinvalidations:

    • Definition: Actions that exclude, negate, or nullify thoughts, feelings, or experiences, often unintentional or unconscious.

Food Choices and Identity

  • Guendelman et al. (2011):

    • found that identity threat (feeling pressure to proves one’s belonging in America, led us immigrants to choose more stereotypically American foods, showing social belonging can shape dietary habits

    • Explored the relationship between food and identity signalling, and embarrassment regarding childhood food practices.

  • Study 1:

    • Asian Americans and white Americans were asked about their ability to speak English (a subtle identity threat).

    • Design: 2 x 2 (White/Asian Control/Threat) regarding the question “Do you speak English?”

    • They were asked to report favourite foods.

    • Results indicated that under threat, Asians prefer American food.

  • Study 2:

    • Involved only Asian Americans focusing on how appetite affects cognitive processing regarding food orders.

    • ppts were given a choice between american and asian foods after being primed with identity threat, those who felt threatened were more likely to choose unhealthy american options..

Meta-stereotypes

  • Definition:

    • Meta-stereotypes refer to a person’s beliefs regarding the stereotypes that out-group members hold about their own group (Vorauer, Main & O’Connell, 1998).

Stereotype Threat (Steele et al., 1995)

  • Stereotype threat significantly hampers the academic performance and identity development of African Americans and women in domains where negative stereotypes about their abilities exist.

  • Definition:

    • A stereotype becomes self-threatening and can disrupt performance. The stereotype of inability can interfere with an individual’s performance by creating a situational threat and longer-term internalization of inferiority.

  • Studies on Stereotype Threat:

    • Study 1: aimed to test if framing a test as diagnostic of ability, triggers stereotype threat in black students.

    • Test presented as diagnostic revealed that Black individuals underperformed when the test was labelled as such.

    • Study 2:

    • Replication of prior findings; also noted less engagement (attempted fewer questions) under diagnostic conditions with no anxiety effects noted.

  • Study 4:

    • Investigated performance under conditional threat by manipulating stereotype threat through race identification on a questionnaire.

  • to summarise - they showed that negative stereotypes about social groups can create a psychological burden known as stereotype threat, which undermines academic performance and identity. When individuals fear being judged through the lens of a stereotype — such as race or gender — their anxiety increases, working memory is compromised, and performance suffers, even if they are capable and motivated. Over time, this can lead to disidentification from academic domains, reducing engagement and persistence.

Effects of Positive Stereotypes

  • Research Findings: (Ambady et al., 2001)

    • Positive stereotypes can have facilitative effects on cognitive performance in children.

  • downside to pos stereotypes: Ho, Driscoll and Loosbrock 1998

    • ppts graded a poorly performed maths assignment that they believed was the work of an asian or white person.

    • they found that when they were not told to be accurate, ppts spent little time grading and gave lower scored to asian students.

    • but when they were told to be accurate the bias disappeared

    • shows how bias is more likely to influence judgment when people are rushed, distracted or unmotivated.

Attitudes Towards Positive Stereotypes

  • Reception of Positive Stereotypes:

    • While they may maintain group identity, they could also impose limits and reproduce negative stereotypes.

    • Case Study: (Dobai & Hopkins, 2020)

    • Conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 Hungarian Roma participants, leading to thematic analysis exploring the instrumental value of positive stereotypes, intergroup power relations, and their limitations.

    • widespread stereotype that roma people possess innate musical ability.

    • they found:

      • stereotype as constraint - felt this idea limited their potential and reduced them to entertainers.

      • even positive stereotypes can be harmful when they essentialise identity, limit personal agency and reinforce marginalisation.

Main Themes from Case Study

  • Theme 1: The instrumental value of positive stereotypes for identity and connection.

  • Theme 2: Intergroup power relations—who defines group values?

  • Theme 3: Acknowledging the limitations of positive stereotypes, i.e., only certain types of music associated with a group.

  • Theme 4: Positive stereotypes can perpetuate negative stereotypes through an essentialist view.