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In this study, we are interested in examining whether providing reputational information about targets' competence will affect how much people transfer to excited and calm targets in an economic game (Trust Game). We expect that competence reputation will exert a weaker effect on transfers compared to trustworthiness reputation (which was manipulated in a prior study). In addition, we predict that East Asians will transfer more to calm than excited targets, whereas European Americans will not differ in the amount they transfer to calm versus excited targets. European Americans in the U.S. (N = 100) and Taiwanese (N = 100) will be recruited for this study.

In this study, we are interested in examining whether providing information about targets' social reputation will affect how much people transfer to excited and calm targets in an economic game (Trust Game). Based on preliminary data, we predict that across groups, participants will transfer more to targets who have higher vs. lower reputation. In addition, we predict that East Asians will transfer more to calm than excited targets regardless of target reputation. European Americans in the U.S. (N = 100) and Taiwanese (N = 100) will be recruited for this study.

Recent work demonstrated that racial bias in pain care stems, at least in part, from a perceptual source (Mende-Siedlecki et al., 2019). Notably, this racial bias in pain perception seems to arise, at least in part, from disruptions in configural face processing. Differential engagement of configural processing has also been implicated as a core mechanism supporting other more basic social perceptual biases, like the cross-race effect (e.g., a tendency to show reduced memory for other-race faces; Hancock & Rhodes, 2008; Rhodes et al., 2009) and the out-group homogeneity effect (e.g., a related tendency to show diminished perceptual sensitivity to different faces from a racial out-group; Hughes et al., 2019). In recent pilot work adapting the Hughes et al. (2019) task, we’ve demonstrated that perceivers show a basic perceptual insensitivity to identity changes on Black (vs. white faces) as well as a more specific insensitivity to variability in pain expressions on Black (vs. white faces). Moreover, racial bias in identity sensitivity is positively correlated with racial bias in pain sensitivity. Here, we again assess whether perceptual insensitivity to a) identity and b) pain in Black (versus white) faces are correlated with each other. Moreover, we seek to confirm that a blunting in perceptual insensitivity to pain on Black (vs. white) faces in a previous study was a consequence of an order effect (such that completing the identity sensitivity task first affected responses in the pain sensitivity task).

Recent work demonstrated that racial bias in pain care stems, at least in part, from a perceptual source (Mende-Siedlecki et al., 2019). Notably, this racial bias in pain perception seems to arise, at least in part, from disruptions in configural face processing. Differential engagement of configural processing has also been implicated as a core mechanism supporting other more basic social perceptual biases, like the cross-race effect (e.g., a tendency to show reduced memory for other-race faces; Hancock & Rhodes, 2008; Rhodes et al., 2009) and the out-group homogeneity effect (e.g., a related tendency to show diminished perceptual sensitivity to different faces from a racial out-group; Hughes et al., 2019). Here, we assess whether perceptual insensitivity to a) identity and b) pain in Black (versus white) faces are correlated with each other.

G. Recent work demonstrated that racial bias in pain care stems, at least in part, from a perceptual source (Mende-Siedlecki et al., 2019). Notably, this racial bias in pain perception seems to arise, at least in part, from disruptions in configural face processing. Differential engagement of configural processing has also been implicated as a core mechanism supporting other more basic social perceptual biases, like the cross-race effect (e.g., a tendency to show reduced memory for other-race faces; Hancock & Rhodes, 2008; Rhodes et al., 2009) and the out-group homogeneity effect (e.g., a related tendency to show diminished perceptual sensitivity to different faces from a racial out-group; Hughes et al., 2019). Here, we seek to establish a direct association between racial bias in pain perception and the cross-race effect.

D. Recent work demonstrated that racial bias in pain care stems, at least in part, from a perceptual source (Mende-Siedlecki et al., 2019). Racial bias in pain perception arises from disruptions in configural face processing, cannot be explained by low-level stimulus features, persists even when identical expressions of pain are rendered on computer-generated targets, and predicts biases in treatment above and beyond explicit stereotypes and prejudice. That said, the automaticity of this bias remains unclear. If the bias depends on the conscious and deliberate application of explicit knowledge and stereotypes, we’d predict that the bias would be reduced under conditions of cognitive load. That said, one previous investigation we conducted demonstrated that cognitive load did not influence the magnitude of racial bias in pain perception. Here, we conduct a second replication of this previous paradigm once again using photographs of real individuals as stimuli (as opposed to computer-generated faces). We also employ additional screening criteria to ensure that participants included in the analyses are engaging with the load manipulation appropriately. Note that this is a reposting of a previous pre-registration (https://osf.io/dj689) which includes the addition of exclusion criteria that were accidentally left off of the original preregistration document.

We examine neural bases of racial bias in pain perception and treatment. For further details, see preregistration document.

Recent work demonstrated that racial bias in pain care stems, at least in part, from a perceptual source (Mende-Siedlecki et al., 2019). Racial bias in pain perception arises from disruptions in configural face processing, cannot be explained by low-level stimulus features, persists even when identical expressions of pain are rendered on computer-generated targets, and predicts biases in treatment above and beyond explicit stereotypes and prejudice. However, within a medical context, judgments of pain are rarely made in the absence of other diagnostic information such as a patient’s report of their subjective pain level. That said, real-world disparities in pain care for Black Americans persist in medical contexts despite self-reported pain experience. This may suggest that although self-reported pain may be considered in judgements of patient pain, it does not entirely eliminate bias in pain care, perhaps due to the persistence of a perceptual bias. A previous investigation manipulated both target race and self-report but used a) larger windows of self-report (4-6 vs. 8-10 for ambiguous and high self-report, respectively), b) a non-clinical pain context (e.g., experimental pain stimulations), and c) a treatment measure that was comparable in scale to the pain self-report scale itself, which might have led participants to simply match their treatment recommendations to the self-report values. Here, we test if racial bias in pain perception is robust to information about self-reported pain experience in a task that a) compares between two specific self-report values (4 vs. 7; where a 7/10 in terms of pain experience would still qualify as severe, uncontrolled pain), b) a clinical pain context (specifically, targets will be described as patients in dealing with pain during physical therapy after orthopedic surgery), and c) a more ecologically valid treatment measure.

Recent work demonstrated that racial bias in pain care stems, at least in part, from a perceptual source (Mende-Siedlecki et al., 2019). Notably, this racial bias in pain perception seems to arise, at least in part, from disruptions in configural face processing. Differential engagement of configural processing has also been implicated as a core mechanism supporting other more basic social perceptual biases, like the cross-race effect (e.g., a tendency to show reduced memory for other-race faces; Hancock & Rhodes, 2008; Rhodes et al., 2009) and the out-group homogeneity effect (e.g., a related tendency to show diminished perceptual sensitivity to different faces from a racial out-group; Hughes et al., 2019). In recent pilot work adapting the Hughes et al. (2019) task, we’ve demonstrated that perceivers show a basic perceptual insensitivity to identity changes on Black (vs. white faces) as well as a more specific insensitivity to variability in pain expressions on Black (vs. white faces). Moreover, racial bias in identity sensitivity is positively correlated with racial bias in pain sensitivity. Finally, a serial mediation model (with identity sensitivity preceding pain sensitivity consecutively) demonstrated that these factors facilitate the influence of target race on treatment. Here, we again assess whether perceptual insensitivity to a) identity and b) pain in Black (versus white) faces are correlated with each other. Moreover, we seek to confirm the serial mediation we observed previously, using a more ecologically valid set of stimuli in our treatment task.

Recent work demonstrates that racial bias in pain care stems, at least in part, from a perceptual source (Mende-Siedlecki et al., 2019). Racial bias in pain perception arises from disruptions in configural face processing, cannot be explained by low-level stimulus features, persists even when identical expressions of pain are rendered on computer-generated targets, and predicts biases in treatment above and beyond explicit stereotypes and prejudice. That said, the speed with which painful expressions are processed is somewhat unclear, and further, the automaticity of this bias is as of yet uncertain. Are differences in evaluations of Black and White facial expressions of pain evident under minimal presentation conditions, or does this bias require more time (and deliberation) to emerge?