Racial bias is associated with ingroup death rate for Blacks and Whites: Insights from Project Implicit

Abstract

a b s t r a c tRationale: Research suggests that, among Whites, racial bias predicts negative ingroup health outcomes. However, little is known about whether racial bias predicts ingroup health outcomes among minority populations. Objective: The aim of the current research was to understand whether racial bias predicts negative ingroup health outcomes for Blacks. Method: We compiled racial bias responses from 250,665 Blacks and 1,391,632 Whites to generate county-level estimates of Blacks' and Whites' implicit and explicit biases towards each other. We then examined the degree to which these biases predicted ingroup death rate from circulatory-related diseases. Results: In counties where Blacks harbored more implicit bias towards Whites, Blacks died at a higher rate. Additionally, consistent with previous research, in counties where Whites harbored more explicit bias towards Blacks, Whites died at a higher rate. These links between racial bias and ingroup death rate were independent of county-level socio-demographic characteristics, and racial biases from the outgroup in the same county. Conclusion: Findings indicate that racial bias is related to negative ingroup health outcomes for both Blacks and Whites, though this relationship is driven by implicit bias for Blacks, and explicit bias for Whites.

Historical roots of implicit bias in slavery

“…Our bias of crowds model attempts to bridge the intraperson focus common in psychology with research on the structural and cultural forces that perpetuate inequality. Consistent with this social context perspective, aggregate measures of implicit bias, such as national, state, and county-level averages, are robustly associated with such outcomes as racial disparities in health (26), infant health (27), police shootings (28), and gender disparities in STEM fields (29). These aggregate-level associations are generally stronger than individual difference associations (21).…”

Understanding Implicit Bias: Putting the Criticism into Perspective

“…Findings like this – and there are numerous others (e.g., Leitner et al . , ; Marini et al . ; Orchard and Price ; Rae et al .…”

Same-sex marriage legalization associated with reduced implicit and explicit antigay bias

“…Since 2002, Project Implicit has operated a website that people can visit to complete an implicit association test (IAT), one measure of implicit bias (33). The vast majority of prejudice research has focused on individuals, but by geolocating the millions of responses at Project Implicit, researchers have very recently begun examining associations between various outcomes and regional trends in prejudice (34)(35)(36)(37)(38). Here, we examine changing regional implicit and explicit antigay biases over time, comparing these trends before and after local state-level legalization of same-sex marriage in each state.…”