Understanding the Influence of Interpersonal Biases on Health Outcomes and Disparities

Council Date: May 31, 2024

Objective

To support research that examines mechanisms and pathways linking interpersonal bias exposure to adverse physical and mental health outcomes and disparities.

Download the full concept paper

Description of Initiative

This initiative will support multidisciplinary and multilevel research to understand mechanisms and pathways through which interpersonal biases influence health outcomes and disparities. Studies that utilize intersectional approaches to assess the influence of bias against multiple marginalized statuses and/or identities are encouraged. Also encouraged is research that examines resilience, coping, social support, and other protective factors that buffer against the impact of biases on health. Study designs may include longitudinal, epidemiological, observational, and/or experimental, examining associations between and among behavioral factors leading from bias exposure to health disparities.

Areas of interest include but are not limited:

• Temporal processes between actual and perceived exposure to biases and the development of adverse health conditions across the lifespan.
• Effects of incremental and cumulative exposure to interpersonal biases over time on oxidative stress, and other physiological responses, and health outcomes.
• Combined and interactive influence of bias exposure with other social determinants of health across domains (e.g., built environment) and levels of influence (e.g., community, socio-structural) contributing to health disparities.
• Historical approaches including intergenerational trauma to understand how interpersonal biases shape health outcomes by revealing long-term patterns and mechanisms of inherited stress and discrimination.
• Sensitive, key transitional periods in exposure to biases to identify risk factors and optimal time points to mitigate the influence of bias exposure on health.
• Influence of bias exposure on engaging in health-promotive behaviors (e.g., substance use abstinence) and health care utilization.
• Key cognitive mechanisms (e.g., vigilance, threat, worry) linking biases to maladaptive physiological responses and poor health.
• Similarities and differences between encounters with stereotyping and/or prejudice in contrast to discrimination exposure on chronic stress and health conditions across societal domains and contexts.
• Systems science and social network approaches that examine how interpersonal biases are dynamically transmitted in population networks across contexts and social settings to influence health.
• Methods to improve measurement tools and to develop new, tailored tools that differentially measure the health impact of biases for different populations.

Page published July 30, 2024