Ingroup Bias in Healthcare Contexts: Israeli-Jewish Perceptions of Arab and Jewish Doctors.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Graham E
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8716498 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Prior work on aging and prejudice has identified that declining executive ability underlies older adults' (OA') increased anti-outgroup bias. The current work, however, suggests that there may also be a motivational reason. Here, we explored the possibility that for OA with relatively lower executive ability, anti-outgroup bias may serve an ironic purpose of maximizing a fundamental social goal: maintaining ingroup positivity. OA are more motivated than young adults (YA) to maximize positivity in everyday life. This process, however, can be cognitively effortful. We tested the novel predictions that (a) OA' executive ability positively predicts their evaluations of ingroup members and (b) OA might preserve positive ingroup perceptions through anti-outgroup bias if they have lower executive ability. The present work tested these predictions using a timely example of an outgroup: Muslims. Study 1 verified that non-Muslim YA and OA identified with non-Muslims (vs. Muslims) as an ingroup. Study 2 then had 3 key findings. First, we replicated work showing a negative relationship between OA' executive ability and their anti-outgroup bias by showing a negative relationship with their anti-Muslim bias. Second, OA' higher executive ability related to their having more positive perceptions of ingroup non-Muslims. Finally, OA with lower executive ability had higher ingroup positivity by having higher anti-Muslim bias. These findings suggest that when OA lack the executive ability to directly maintain a motivational goal of being positive about themselves and their ingroups, they maintain positivity at the expense of others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
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Project description:BACKGROUND:Social support is generally perceived to facilitate health in postpartum women; however, previous research shows that this is not always true. Social interactions intended to provide support can be perceived as negative and in turn, may have negative impacts on maternal health. The purpose of the present study was to asses if social support and negative interactions at one month after childbirth can predict maternal health four months after childbirth, and if this relationship is influenced by culture. METHODS:This prospective longitudinal cohort study included randomly selected Arab (n?=?203) and Jewish (n?=?202) women who attended Mother and Child Health Clinics in Northern Israel one month after giving birth. The women were interviewed at one and four months after childbirth using a questionnaire including measures of health (self-reported health (SRH) and health problems), socioeconomic and demographic status, obstetric characteristics, social support, negative social interactions and perceptions of customs and traditions intended to help the mother cope after childbirth. Multivariable regressions were run to identify the variables predicting health four months after childbirth. RESULTS:The response rate for both interviews was 90%. Negative social interactions one month after childbirth significantly predicted health problems in Arab and Jewish women (Beta 0.20 and 0.37 respectively) and SRH among Arab women only (odds ratio (OR) 0.32, confidence interval (CI) 0.19-0.54) four months after childbirth. Social support at one month after childbirth significantly predicted better SRH in both Jewish and Arab women four months after childbirth (OR 2.33, CI 1.38-3.93 and 1.59, CI 1.01-2.46 respectively) and fewer health problems only among Jewish women (Beta -?0.37). CONCLUSIONS:Social support and negative social interactions appear to be predictive of health in postpartum women. Associations varied between Arabs and Jews, indicating that social support may be more important for predicting health among Jewish women and negative interactions may be more important among Arab women. Healthcare practitioners should be aware of the cultural context and social circumstances of postpartum women to ensure they receive the social support and care they need.
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Project description:Prosocial behavior, in particular helping others in need, occurs preferentially in response to distress of one's own group members. In order to explore the neural mechanisms promoting mammalian helping behavior, a discovery-based approach was used here to identify brain-wide activity correlated with helping behavior in rats. Demonstrating social selectivity, rats helped others of their strain ('ingroup'), but not rats of an unfamiliar strain ('outgroup'), by releasing them from a restrainer. Analysis of brain-wide neural activity via quantification of the early-immediate gene c-Fos identified a shared network, including frontal and insular cortices, that was active in the helping test irrespective of group membership. In contrast, the striatum was selectively active for ingroup members, and activity in the nucleus accumbens, a central network hub, correlated with helping. In vivo calcium imaging showed accumbens activity when rats approached a trapped ingroup member, and retrograde tracing identified a subpopulation of accumbens-projecting cells that was correlated with helping. These findings demonstrate that motivation and reward networks are associated with helping an ingroup member and provide the first description of neural correlates of ingroup bias in rodents.
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Project description:BACKGROUND:While discrimination takes multiple forms, racial or ethnic discrimination is a root cause of this health-damaging social phenomenon. We drew on intersectionality theory, which offers an account of discrimination's multiple effects, to consider associations between women's experiences of discrimination and postpartum depression (PPD) using four measures: single forms of discrimination (SFD); multiple forms of discrimination (MFD); ethnic discrimination combined with MFD (E-MFD); and a composite MFD that interacted with women's identity (C-MFD). METHODS:We interviewed a stratified sample of 1128 mothers face to face in 2014-2015 during mothers' visits to maternal and child health clinics. The mothers belonged to three groups in Israel: Palestinian-Arab minority, Jewish immigrant, and non-immigrant Jewish. We conducted unadjusted and adjusted logistic regressions for PPD, measured on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, in associations with SFD (experiencing discrimination based on any of the following: age, sex, class, ethno-national identity, religiosity level and skin color); MFD (experiencing 0,1, 2 or???3 of SFD); E-MFD (ethnic discrimination combined with other MFD); and finally, C-MFD (interaction between MFD and women's identity). RESULTS:Palestinian-Arab mothers had higher PPD and reported higher SFD (based on ethnicity, religiosity level, and socioeconomic status), as well as higher MFD and E-MFD. This was followed by Jewish immigrant mothers, and lastly by non-immigrant Jewish mothers. However, both MFD and E-MFD had a strong association with PPD among non-immigrant Jewish mothers reporting 2MFD and???3MFD, and Palestinian-Arab mothers reporting ?3MFD, but no significant association among immigrant Jewish mothers. When we used C-MFD, we found a dose-response association in which Palestinian-Arab mothers experiencing more MFD (2MFD and???3MFD) were more likely to experience PPD. This was followed by immigrant Jewish mothers (reporting 2MFD and???3MFD), and lastly by non-immigrant Jewish mothers. CONCLUSIONS:MFD should be considered in relation to women's identity (being part of a minority, immigrant, or non-immigrant majority group) in maternal mental health research and practice. Otherwise, we risk underestimating the effects of MFD on PPD, especially in minority and immigrant mothers, who are more likely to face interlocking forms of discrimination.
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