Abstract
Although scholars have long studied circumstances that shape prejudice, inquiry into factors associated with long-term prejudice reduction has been more limited. Using a 6-year longitudinal study of non-Black physicians in training (N = 3,134), we examined the effect of three medical-school factors—interracial contact, medical-school environment, and diversity training—on explicit and implicit racial bias measured during medical residency. When accounting for all three factors, previous contact, and baseline bias, we found that quality of contact continued to predict lower explicit and implicit bias, although the effects were very small. Racial climate, modeling of bias, and hours of diversity training in medical school were not consistently related to less explicit or implicit bias during residency. These results highlight the benefits of interracial contact during an impactful experience such as medical school. Ultimately, professional institutions can play a role in reducing anti-Black bias by encouraging more frequent, and especially more favorable, interracial contact.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 18-30 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Psychological Science |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4272-8572 Onyeador Ivuoma N. 1 Wittlin Natalie M. 1 Burke Sara E. 2 Dovidio John F. 1 Perry Sylvia P. 3 Hardeman Rachel R. 4 Dyrbye Liselotte N. 5 Herrin Jeph 6 Phelan Sean M. 7 van Ryn Michelle 8 1 Department of Psychology, Yale University 2 Department of Psychology, Syracuse University 3 Department of Psychology, Northwestern University 4 Division of Health Policy and Management, University of Minnesota 5 Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic 6 School of Medicine, Yale University 7 Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic 8 School of Nursing, Oregon Health Sciences University Ivuoma N. Onyeador, Yale University, Department of Psychology, Box 208205, New Haven, CT 06520-8205 E-mail: [email protected] 11 2019 0956797619879139 10 9 2018 3 9 2019 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 Association for Psychological Science Although scholars have long studied circumstances that shape prejudice, inquiry into factors associated with long-term prejudice reduction has been more limited. Using a 6-year longitudinal study of non-Black physicians in training ( N = 3,134), we examined the effect of three medical-school factors—interracial contact, medical-school environment, and diversity training—on explicit and implicit racial bias measured during medical residency. When accounting for all three factors, previous contact, and baseline bias, we found that quality of contact continued to predict lower explicit and implicit bias, although the effects were very small. Racial climate, modeling of bias, and hours of diversity training in medical school were not consistently related to less explicit or implicit bias during residency. These results highlight the benefits of interracial contact during an impactful experience such as medical school. Ultimately, professional institutions can play a role in reducing anti-Black bias by encouraging more frequent, and especially more favorable, interracial contact. implicit bias interracial contact prejudice racial bias open data open materials preregistered National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases https://doi.org/10.13039/100000062 K01 DK095924 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute https://doi.org/10.13039/100000050 R01HL085631 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute https://doi.org/10.13039/100000050 R01HL085631-S1 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute https://doi.org/10.13039/100000050 R01HL085631-S2 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute https://doi.org/10.13039/100000050 R01HL085631-S3 Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences https://doi.org/10.13039/100000088 1809370 special-property open-data special-property open-materials special-property preregistration edited-state corrected-proof We thank Deborah Finstad, Kristin Hardin, and Sharyn French for help with testing and data collection and Ron Lam for running the cross-lagged models and full imputation. Action Editor Michael Inzlicht served as action editor for this article. Author Contributions M. van Ryn and J. F. Dovidio developed the study concept. M. van Ryn, S. M. Phelan, S. E. Burke, and J. F. Dovidio designed the study. Testing and data collection were performed under the direction of M. van Ryn. I. N. Onyeador, N. M. Wittlin, S. E. Burke, J. F. Dovidio, S. P. Perry, R. R. Hardeman, L. N. Dyrbye, J. Herrin, S. M. Phelan, and M. van Ryn analyzed and interpreted the data. I. N. Onyeador drafted the manuscript, and the remainder of the authors provided critical revisions. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission. ORCID iD Ivuoma N. Onyeador https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4272-8572 Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared that there were no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship or the publication of this article. Funding This work was supported by a National Science Foundation Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (No. 1809370 to I. N. Onyeador); the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Award Nos. R01HL085631 to M. van Ryn, R01HL085631-S1 to S. P. Perry, and R01HL085631-S2 and R01HL085631-S3 to R. R. Hardeman); and the NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (Award No. K01 DK095924 to S. M. Phelan). Supplemental Material Additional supporting information can be found at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0956797619879139 Open Practices All data and materials have been made publicly available via the Open Science Framework and can be accessed at https://osf.io/78cqx/ . The design and analysis plans for the experiments were preregistered at https://osf.io/vu9xd . The complete Open Practices Disclosure for this article can be found at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0956797619879139 . This article has received the badges for Open Data, Open Materials, and Preregistration. More information about the Open Practices badges can be found at http://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/badges .
Funding Information:
We thank Deborah Finstad, Kristin Hardin, and Sharyn French for help with testing and data collection and Ron Lam for running the cross-lagged models and full imputation. This work was supported by a National Science Foundation Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (No. 1809370 to I. N. Onyeador); the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Award Nos. R01HL085631 to M. van Ryn, R01HL085631-S1 to S. P. Perry, and R01HL085631-S2 and R01HL085631-S3 to R. R. Hardeman); and the NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (Award No. K01 DK095924 to S. M. Phelan).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
Keywords
- implicit bias
- interracial contact
- open data
- open materials
- prejudice
- preregistered
- racial bias