Project Overview
The Pain of Falling Behind: Exploring How Race-Class Stereotypes Inform Subjective Perceptions of Status, Emotional Experiences, and, thus, Health
Department(s)
Psychological and Brain Sciences
Psychological and Brain Sciences
Psychological and Brain Sciences
Abstract
Racial economic inequality is rising in the United States, such that a typical White American household now possesses 9.2 times the amount of wealth as the typical Black American household (Pew Research Center). Despite this reality, White Americans report feeling as though they are “falling behind” their own racial group when it comes to perceived societal status (Calouri et al., 2024; Cooley et al., 2021). Our lab finds that:
- Aligning with racial economic inequality, White people in the U.S. tend to hold race-class stereotypes that White people are “wealthy” and that Black people are “poor” (Brown-Iannuzzi et al., 2019).
- Ironically, we find that it is these stereotypes of White people being wealthy that lead many White people to feel that they are “falling behind” the perceived high status of their racial group (Cooley et al., 2021).
- In nationally representative samples of White Americans, we find that White people’s feelings of falling behind (controlling for their objective status via income and education) at time 1 predict the experience of fewer positive emotions at time 2, which then predicts worse self-reported mental and physical health at time 3 (Caluori et al., 2024).
While informative, these prior findings are limited by their use of self-reported/indirect measures of health. In two studies, our aim is to examine the relationship between feelings of “falling behind” (controlling for objective status like income/education) on direct measures of health. To measure health directly we will assess respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; both at baseline and in response to an in-lab stressor), sleep duration/quality, as well as cortisol reactivity to an in-lab stressor and diurnal cortisol.
Student Qualifications
-courses in the content area of prejudice, racism, economic inequality, or health inequality/disparities; at minimum a strong interest in these topics
-proficiency with computer software like Qualtrics and Excel
-high degree of conscientiousness, quick and professional email correspondence, attention-to-detail, maturity (sensors have to be placed on sensitive parts of participants' torso and back)
-interest in learning new computer software and good organizational skills with email and data files
-Not required but strongly preferred: statistics courses, experience analyzing sleep data or taking physiological measurements
Number of Student Researchers
3 students
Project Length
8 weeks
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