Manuel J. Galvan

We tested whether contemporary Black–White mortality disparities in the United States may be rooted in the historical legacy of slavery and perpetuated through structural inequalities. Linking county-level data on the proportion of enslaved people in 1860 with structural inequality indicators from 1990 to 2000 and mortality outcomes from 2010 to 2020, we find that historical slavery is robustly associated with contemporary racial mortality gaps. Our model estimates ~22 additional deaths per 100,000 among Black Americans relative to White Americans for every 10% increase in the 1860 enslaved population. Path analysis models showed that segregation, economic inequality, and racial disparities in poverty and education statistically mediated this effect. We test the plausibility of a causal pathway using an instrumental variable analysis and explore the robustness of our theoretical model in multiple supplemental analyses. Our analyses held even after controlling for a comprehensive suite of historical and contemporary covariates. These findings are consistent with a model wherein slavery’s legacy continues to shape present-day Black–White racial health disparities via enduring structural inequities.

Is anti-Black discrimination concentrated among a discriminatory few, or widespread across many decision-makers? The handful of studies that have addressed this question have reached divergent conclusions, with some suggesting that discrimination follows the 80/20 rule (i.e., a Pareto distribution) and others suggesting that discrimination is normally distributed. This paper explores the distribution of discrimination in hiring, housing, and judicial decisions. Study 1 examined the distribution of anti-Black discrimination in judges’ repeated sentencing decisions. The distribution of discrimination was more consistent with a normal distribution than a Pareto distribution. In Study 2, meta-analyses of hiring and housing field experiments revealed anti-Black discrimination in more than 80% of studies. Simulations of widespread discrimination using a normal distribution were more consistent with these experimental data than were simulations of concentrated discrimination using a Pareto distribution. These findings suggest that discrimination is not concentrated in the behaviors of a few highly biased individuals.

Inequality is perpetuated, in part, by the psychological and behavioral tendencies that arise from the social context of inequality. Cognitive biases lead most people to see themselves as middle class, even when that perception does not align with economic reality. Those who perceive themselves as economically advantaged tend to view inequality as fair and legitimate, often dismissing proponents of redistributive solutions as ill-informed. And unequal contexts increase risky behaviors that can be profitable to some but are more likely to be costly for most. This research program suggests an inequality cycle, in which inequality experienced today tends to reproduce itself.

Background: Subjective socioeconomic status is robustly associated with many measures of health and well-being. The MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status (i.e., the MacArthur ladder) is the most widely used measure of this construct, but it remains unclear what exactly the MacArthur ladder measures.Purpose: The present research sought to explore the social and economic factors that underlie responses to the MacArthur ladder and its relationship to health.Methods: We investigated this issue by examining the relationship between scores on the MacArthur ladder and measures of economic circumstances and noneconomic social status, as well as health and well-being measures, in healthy adults in the USA.Results: In three studies (total N = 1,310) we found evidence that economic circumstances and social status are distinct constructs that have distinct associations with scores on the MacArthur ladder. We found that both factors exhibit distinct associations with measures of health and well-being and accounted for the association between the MacArthur ladder and each measure of health and well-being.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the MacArthur ladder’s robust predictive validity may result from the fact that it measures two factors—economic circumstances and social status—that are each independently associated with health outcomes. These findings provide a novel perspective on the large body of literature that uses the MacArthur ladder and suggests health researchers should do more to disentangle the social and economic aspects of subjective socioeconomic status.

A promising way to mitigate inequality is by addressing students’ worries about belonging. But where and with whom is this social-belonging intervention effective? Here we report a team-science randomized controlled experiment with 26,911 students at 22 diverse institutions. Results showed that the social-belonging intervention, administered online before college (in under 30 minutes), increased the rate at which students completed the first year as full-time students, especially among students in groups that had historically progressed at lower rates. The college context also mattered: The intervention was effective only when students’ groups were afforded opportunities to belong. This study develops methods for understanding how student identities and contexts interact with interventions. It also shows that a low-cost, scalable intervention generalizes its effects to 749 4-year institutions in the United States.

Racial disparities in health are a major public health problem in the United States, especially when comparing chronic disease morbidity and mortality for Black versus White Americans. These health disparities are primarily due to insidious anti-Black racism that permeates American history, current culture and institutions, and interpersonal interactions. But how does racism get under the skull and the skin to influence brain and bodily processes that impact the health of Black Americans? In the present article, we present a model describing the possible neural and inflammatory mechanisms linking racism and health. We hypothesize that racism influences neural activity and connectivity in the salience and default mode networks of the brain and disrupts interactions between these networks and the executive control network. This pattern of neural functioning in turn leads to greater sympathetic nervous system signaling, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation, and increased expression of genes involved in inflammation, ultimately leading to higher levels of proinflammatory cytokines in the body and brain. Over time, these neural and physiological responses can lead to chronic physical and mental health conditions, disrupt well-being, and cause premature mortality. Given that research in this area is underdeveloped to date, we emphasize opportunities for future research that are needed to build a comprehensive mechanistic understanding of the brain-body pathways linking anti-Black racism and health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Subjective socioeconomic status is robustly associated with many measures of health and wellbeing. The MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status (i.e., the MacArthur ladder) is the most widely used measure of this construct, but it remains unclear what exactly the MacArthur ladder measures, given its low correlation with objective measures and high predictive utility. In the present research we investigated this issue by examining the relationship between scores on the MacArthur ladder and measures of both economic circumstances and non-economic social status. In three studies (total N=1,310) we found that economic circumstances and social status are distinct constructs that are both uniquely associated with scores on the MacArthur ladder. We found that both factors were also uniquely associated with measures of health and well-being. Our findings suggest that the MacArthur ladder’s robust predictive validity may result from the fact that it measures two factors – economic circumstances and social status – that are each independently associated with health outcomes. These findings provide a novel perspective on the large body of literature that uses the MacArthur ladder and suggests that health researchers should do more to disentangle the social and economic aspects of subjective socioeconomic status.

Is anti-Black racial discrimination due to “a few bad apples”? Or, is there a larger pattern of widespread discrimination? This question about the distribution of discrimination is fundamental for understanding the causes of discrimination and for choosing effective solutions; yet we know surprisingly little about how discrimination is distributed. The current paper explores the distribution of discrimination using meta-analytic data and simulations from experimental studies in two critical contexts: hiring and housing. The meta-analysis revealed that anti-Black discrimination is found in more than 80% of studies. Simulations of widespread anti-Black discrimination using a normal distribution were more consistent with the experimental data on racial discrimination than were simulations of concentrated anti-Black discrimination using a Pareto distribution. These findings help address the perennial question about the distribution of discrimination and offer a rigorous quantitative method to refine the debate between concentrated and widespread accounts going forward.