Doctors unknowingly favor whites over blacks
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In the first study of its kind, researchers have shown that doctors have an unconscious bias in how they view patients, favoring white patients over black patients.
The study, presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Assn. in San Diego, mirrors other studies that indicate people often have racial biases that they are unaware of, said the lead author of the study, Janice Sabin, acting assistant professor of medical education and biomedical informatics at the University of Washington. Possessing an unconscious bias does not mean people are racist, she said in the presentation. And the study does not imply that an implicit bias will affect healthcare. ‘This research is too preliminary to know if there is a direct relationship between physicians’ implicit, or unconscious, racial attitudes and the quality of medical care.’
The data come from a sample of more than 400,000 people who anonymously took a race attitude Implicit Association Test. The test captures subconscious bias by asking people to quickly associate positive or negative words with a series of photographs. (The test can be found on the website of Project Implicit, which is operated by the University of Washington, University of Virginia and Harvard University.)
More than 2,500 test takers identified themselves as doctors. The majority of all physicians of all racial and ethnic groups showed an implicit preference for white Americans compared with black Americans except for black doctors who on average did not favor either group.
Doctors are not the only professionals exhibiting unconscious bias. Such bias is widespread in society, Sabin says. Tests of lawyers and people with doctoral degrees also showed implicit bias.
‘People who report they have a medical education are not different from other people, and this kind of unconscious bias is a common phenomenon,’ she said. ‘In medical education, we need to include examination of personal attitudes and beliefs in diversity training and continuing medical education to increase self-awareness so that doctors are alert to hidden attitudes and beliefs that may affect care for minority populations.’
-- Shari Roan