Racial discrimination negatively impacts cardiac functioning, but few studies examine the more distal cardiac effects of racial discrimination experiences. The present study examined the momentary and prolonged impact of lab-based intergroup and intragroup racial discrimination on heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate (HR) in a sample (N = 42) of African American (AA) women across two days. On day one, the women were exposed to simulated racial discrimination from either a European American (EA) or AA confederate in the lab. On day two, the women returned to the lab for additional physiological recording and debriefing. Women insulted by the EA confederate exhibited lower HRV on day one and marginally lower HRV on day two. These women also exhibited marginally higher HR on day two. The HRV and HR effects on day two were not mediated by differences in perseveration about the stressor. The findings indicate that racial discrimination – particularly intergroup racial discrimination – may have both momentary and prolonged effects on cardiac activity in AAs.

Objective Decades of research suggest that there may be important ethnic differences in the hemodynamic mechanisms that co-determine arterial blood pressure, the primary diagnostic index of hypertension. In general, studies have observed that, compared with European Americans (EAs), African Americans (AAs) exhibit higher total peripheral resistance (TPR), an important summative index of peripheral vascular constriction. In contrast, EAs have been reliably shown to exhibit greater cardiac output (CO), which is directly linked to left ventricle and overall cardiac blood flow. We have previously proposed that elevated basal TPR, in particular, represents one component of the cardiovascular conundrum, characterized, paradoxically, by elevated resting heart rate variability among AAs relative to EAs. The present meta-analysis and systematic review of the literature sought to extend this previous work by establishing the magnitude of the empirically implied ethnic differences in resting TPR and CO. Methods A search of the literature yielded 140 abstracts on differences in TPR between AAs and EAs; 40 were included. Sample sizes, means, and standard deviations for baseline TPR with samples that included EAs and AAs were collected, and Hedges g was computed. Results Findings indicated that AAs had higher baseline TPR than did EAs (Hedges g = 0.307, SE = 0.043, confidence interval= 0.224 to 0.391, p < .001). In addition, EAs had higher resting CO than did AAs (Hedges g = −0.214, SE = 0.056, confidence interval = −0.324 to −0.104, p < .001). Conclusions We discuss the present findings in the context of the role of elevated TPR in the deleterious effects of high blood pressure specifically for AAs.