Beyond Fear of Backlash: Effects of messages about structural drivers of COVID-19 disparities among large samples of Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White Americans

Beyond Fear of Backlash: Effects of messages about structural drivers of COVID-19 disparities among large samples of Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White Americans

COVID-19 (Disease)--Social aspects--United States

Neil A. Lewis Jr., Norman Porticella, Jiawei Liu, Teairah Taylor, Jamila Michener, Colleen L. Barry, Rebekah H. Nagler, Sarah Gollust, Steven T. Moore, Erika Franklin Fowler, Jeff Niederdeppe

Social Science & Medicine

Vol. 377

2025

Elsevier

Journal article

English

18735347

United States

Open Access

Although U.S. health disparities are well-documented, the very communities that bear the brunt of those disparities are, ironically, underrepresented in scientific efforts to understand and address them. In two experiments (total N = 9523), we explored the consequences of omitting those perspectives for efforts to understand and address disparities in the COVID-19 pandemic.
We found that, by prioritizing the perspectives of White Americans, studies of pandemic disparities likely missed important insights. Specifically, we purposively sampled the four largest racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. and found that people of color were consistently more concerned, and more willing to engage in both individual and collective efforts to address health disparities, than their White counterparts. In addition, messages highlighting structural drivers of health disparities further bolstered support for inequality mitigating policies.

Haley Lesemann