Implicit race bias towads American Indians documented in physicians

Abstract

The present study was designed to examine implicit stereotyping and prejudice towards American Indians in a physician sample. An invitation with a link to the online survey was emailed to Southern Arizona physicians. Participants completed both a stereotype and prejudice Implicit Association Test (IAT) to determine if they held implicit bias against American Indians. It was predicted that participants would be quicker to implicitly associate American Indian stimuli with noncompliance compared to non- Hispanic White stimuli in the stereotype IAT and hold an implicit preference for White stimuli in the evaluative IAT. Results show that physicians implicitly stereotype American Indians as non-compliant and hold negative attitudes towards them, relative to non-Hispanic Whites. These findings have implications for acute and long-term medicaldecision making, as well as doctor-patient interactions.