Physician Racial Bias and Word Use during Racially Discordant Medical Interactions

Physician racial bias can negatively affect Black patients' reactions to racially discordant medical interactions, suggesting that racial bias is manifested in physicians' communication with their Black patients. However, little is known about how physician racial bias actually influences...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health communication 2017-04, Vol.32 (4), p.401-408
Main Authors: Hagiwara, Nao, Slatcher, Richard B., Eggly, Susan, Penner, Louis A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
African Americans
African Americans - psychology
Aged
Anxiety
Asian Americans - psychology
Attitude of Health Personnel
Bias
Communication
Dominance
European Continental Ancestry Group - psychology
Female
Humans
Language
Male
Medical personnel
Middle Aged
Midwestern United States
Patients
Physician patient relationships
Physician-Patient Relations
Physicians
Physicians - psychology
Primary Health Care
Pronouns
Racial bias
Racism
Racism - psychology
Regression Analysis
Social anxiety
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:Physician racial bias can negatively affect Black patients' reactions to racially discordant medical interactions, suggesting that racial bias is manifested in physicians' communication with their Black patients. However, little is known about how physician racial bias actually influences their communication during these interactions. This study investigated how non-Black physicians' racial bias is related to their word use during medical interactions with Black patients. One hundred and seventeen video-recorded racially discordant medical interactions from a larger study were transcribed and analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software. Physicians with higher levels of implicit racial bias used first-person plural pronouns and anxiety-related words more frequently than physicians with lower levels of implicit bias. There was also a trend for physicians with higher levels of explicit racial bias to use first-person singular pronouns more frequently than physicians with lower levels of explicit bias. These findings suggest that non-Black physicians with higher levels of implicit racial bias may tend to use more words that reflect social dominance (i.e., first-person plural pronouns) and anxiety when interacting with Black patients.
ISSN:1041-0236
1532-7027
DOI:10.1080/10410236.2016.1138389