AFRICAN AMERICANS and HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE: the Role of Stereotype Threat Jim Blascovich,1 Steven J
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Article AFRICAN AMERICANS AND HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE: The Role of Stereotype Threat Jim Blascovich,1 Steven J. Spencer,2 Diane Quinn,3 and Claude Steele4 1University of California, Santa Barbara; 2University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; 3University of Connecticut; and 4Stanford University Abstract—We examined the effect of stereotype threat on blood pres- Goldstein, & Armstrong, 1989). Second, repressing anger and anger- sure reactivity. Compared with European Americans, and African provoking manipulations, particularly ones in which racism provokes Americans under little or no stereotype threat, African Americans un- the anger, do produce greater cardiovascular reactivity among African der stereotype threat exhibited larger increases in mean arterial blood Americans compared with European Americans (Armstead, Lawler, pressure during an academic test, and performed more poorly on diffi- Gorden, Cross, & Gibbons, 1989; Harburg, Blakelock, & Roper, 1979; cult test items. We discuss the significance of these findings for under- Johnson, 1989; Johnson, Schork, & Spielberger, 1987). Third, John standing the incidence of hypertension among African Americans. Henryism, or the tendency to work extremely hard while not giving up on difficult and demanding tasks, has been strongly associated with hypertension in African Americans but not in European Americans Many studies have demonstrated that African Americans have a (James, Hartnett, & Kalsbeek, 1983; James, LaCroix, Kleinbaum, & higher incidence of high blood pressure, or hypertension, than Euro- Strogatz, 1984; James, Strogatz, Wing, & Ramsey, 1987). pean Americans (for reviews, see Anderson, 1989; Folkow, 1982; Because African Americans face more situations in which they are Obrist, 1981). Some researchers have argued that genetic factors ex- stereotyped by others and consequently face a relatively high level of ste- plain the higher incidence (Rotimi, Cooper, Cao, Sundarum, & Mc- reotype threat, a rare experience for European Americans, their compara- Gee, 1994).
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