Tag Archives: causal mechanism

Experiencing Discrimination Increases Risk-Taking, Anger, and Vigilance

Experiencing rejection not only affects how we think and feel — over the long-term it can also influence our physical and mental health. New research suggests that when rejection comes in the form of discrimination, people respond with a pattern of thoughts, behaviors, and physiological responses that may contribute to overall health disparities.

“Psychological factors, like discrimination, have been suggested as part of the causal mechanisms that explain how discrimination gets ‘under the skin’ to affect health,” says psychological scientist and senior researcher Wendy Berry Mendes of the University of California, San Francisco. “We wanted to explore the behavioral consequences that follow experiences of discrimination to better understand these mechanisms.” (more…)

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