Racial bias in perceptions of children's pain.

ABSTRACT: Across eight experiments, we investigated whether adult perceivers (both lay perceivers and elementary school teachers) evaluate children's pain differently depending on the child's race. We found evidence that adults varying in racial and ethnic identities (but primarily White) believed 4- to 6-year-old Black children felt less pain than 4- to 6-year-old White children (Experiments 1-7), and this effect was not moderated by child sex (Experiments 6-7). We also examined perceptions of life hardship as a mediator of this race-to-pain effect, finding that adults evaluated Black children as having lived harder lives and thus as feeling less pain than White children (Experiments 1-3). Finally, we examined downstream consequences for hypothetical treatment recommendations among samples of both

SUBMITTER: Summers KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11801373 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature