EFFECTS OF RACIAL STEREOTYPES ON PERCEPTIONS OF A SPORTS CONCUSSION

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine if racial bias impacts the perceptions of a concussion in female athletes. There are stereotypes that Black Americans have a higher tolerance to pain than whites, thus causing them to get under treated for pain. Participants read a vignette under a time constraint about a Black or White female soccer player suffering either a mild, moderate, or severe concussion. They then responded to questions asking about the athlete’s concussion, pain level and how long they should sit out for. After using a 4 way ANOVA test (target race, type of concussion, time variable, perceiver’s gender), the results revealed several marginal interaction effects showing that race and perceiver’s sex moderated how the injury was perceived. As predicted, males were less likely to say she was concussed when she was Black compared to White when the injury was mild. However, this is not consistent over all explicit measures; therefore, racial bias when analyzing pain perception may not be a main factor. There were limitations that may have led the study’s results such as sample size. There are still future questions about this topic in particular to improve the health disparities amongst blacks and whites.