White patients’ physical responses to healthcare treatments are influenced by provider race and gender

Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – June 2022

Written by 

Lauren C. Howe, Emerson J. Hardebeck, Jennifer L. Eberhardt and Alia J. Crum

Summary 

What we found: Long-standing societal representations of doctors depict them as White and men, leading us to wonder whether patients might be less responsive to treatment from medical leaders who do not fit this demographic profile. We found that patients had a weaker physiological response to placebo treatment (i.e., unscented hand lotion placed on a mild, lab-induced allergic reaction) when the treatment was administered by a provider who was a woman or Black.

Why it matters: These results suggest that notions of race and gender can influence how people respond to leaders in the medical profession, ultimately changing the physical response patients have to medical treatment. Problematic race and gender dynamics can endure «under the skin» even for those who aim to be bias free.

What next: Bias harms not only the target of bias, but as this study shows, it can also harm observers of bias. To combat bias, we need to move beyond fostering change at the individual level to also foster change at the societal level, such as by increasing representation of women and people of color in medicine and in media depictions of medical professionals.