Racial Bias in Perceptions of Others’ Pain

Abstract

The present work provides evidence that people assume a priori that Blacks feel less pain than do Whites. It also demonstrates that this bias is rooted in perceptions of status and the privilege (or hardship) status confers, not race per se. Archival data from the National Football League injury reports reveal that, relative to injured White players, injured Black players are deemed more likely to play in a subsequent game, possibly because people assume they feel less pain. Experiments 1–4 show that White and Black Americans–including registered nurses and nursing students–assume that Black people feel less pain than do White people. Finally, Experiments 5 and 6 provide evidence that this bias is rooted in perceptions of status, not race per se. Taken together, these data have important implications for understanding race-related biases and healthcare disparities.

Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites

“…Conversely, participants who endorsed fewer false beliefs (−1 SD) rated the black target as feeling more pain than the white target [β = −0.48, SE = 0.20, t(211) = −2.34, P = 0.020]. In other words, as in study 1, participants in study 2 who endorsed false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites exhibited a racial bias in pain perception similar to the bias shown in previous work (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Unexpectedly, participants who did not endorse such beliefs exhibited a bias in the opposite direction.…”

“…Taken together, this work provides evidence that false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites continue to shape the way we perceive and treat black people-they are associated with racial disparities in pain assessment and treatment recommendations. this research has also shown that racial attitudes, measured both implicitly and explicitly, do not predict racial bias in pain perception or treatment (11,15,18), with the exception of one study showing that implicit pro-white attitudes predicted physicians' likelihood of recommending thrombolysis treatment (19). Racial bias in perceptions of pain (and possibly treatment) does not appear to be borne out of racist attitudes.…”

“…In fact, recent work suggests that racial bias in pain treatment may stem, in part, from racial bias in perceptions of others' pain. This research has shown that people assume a priori that blacks feel less pain than do whites (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17). In a study by Staton et al (14), for instance, patients were asked to report how much pain they were experiencing, and physicians were asked to rate how much pain they thought the patients were experiencing.…”

Facing humanness: Facial width-to-height ratio predicts ascriptions of humanity.

“…It seemed unlikely that adult human targets would be fully denied basic experiential drive stateshunger, fear, and the capacity to feel pain and pleasure -leading to the possibility that high fWHR faces would be denied agency but not experience (much like an animal). However, given that recent research has demonstrated that not all adult humans are seen equally capable of basic experiences such as pain (e.g., Trawalter, Hoffman, & Waytz, 2012), it was also plausible that high fWHR faces would be denied both agency and experience.…”

Which Causes of Moral Beliefs Matter?

“…For instance, on the false-negative side this mechanism of pain attribution is less likely to engage when it comes to outgroup members. People often empathize less with outgroup members experiencing pain than ingroup members; for instance, Trawalter, Hoffman, and Waytz (2012) show that white subjects tend to attribute lower levels of pain to black people (see also Cikara and Fiske 2011).…”