Physicians’ Implicit and Explicit Attitudes About Race by MD Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
Open accessAbstract
Recent reports suggest that providers’ implicit attitudes about race contribute to racial and ethnic health care disparities. However, little is known about physicians’ implicit racial attitudes. This study measured implicit and explicit attitudes about race using the Race Attitude Implicit Association Test (IAT) for a large sample of test takers (N=404,277), including a sub-sample of medical doctors (MDs) (n=2,535). Medical doctors, like the entire sample, showed an implicit preference for White Americans relative to Black Americans. We examined these effects among White, African American, Hispanic, and Asian MDs and by physician gender. Strength of implicit bias exceeded self-report among all test takers except African American MDs. African American MDs, on average, did not show an implicit preference for either Blacks or Whites, and women showed less implicit bias than men. Future research should explore whether, and under what conditions, MDs’ implicit attitudes about race affect the quality of medical care.
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About 70 percent of physicians have an implicit preference for whites over blacks, similar to the pattern observed for other professionals and the general population.
“Analyses of data from a large, volunteer and non-representative sample of persons who took the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a widely used test to assess the presence of implicit bias, concluded that about 70 percent of physicians have an implicit preference for whites over blacks, similar to the pattern observed for other professionals and the general population [71].”
From Reducing Racial Inequities in Health: Using What We Already Know to Take Action (2019) · cites this paper as [71]
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References 76 · Cited by 472
Research works printed but not linked: 15
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- Authors
- Sabin, J. A., Nosek, B. A., Greenwald, A. G., & Rivara, F. P.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- University of Virginia (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved
- Publisher
- Project MUSE
- Published
- 2009-08
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 896-913
- ISSN
- 1049-2089 (ISSN-L)
- 1548-6869
- PMC
- PMC3320738
- OpenAlex
- W2140612461
- Cited by
- 472
- References
- 76
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 47 · 2020: 45 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 37.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (1-R36HS1576-01)
- National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH20010, T32MH020010, R01MH068447, R-01 MH68447-01)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Diversity and Career in Medicine
- Keywords
- implicit racial attitudes, physicians, implicit bias, explicit attitudes, African American physicians, physician gender, racial preferences
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attitude of Health Personnel, Black or African American, Data Collection, Female, Humans, Male, Physicians, Prejudice, Internet, White People
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