University of Virginia Report: Med students believe black people feel less pain than whites
Thinkstock New research is out that could help explain why African Americans are often undertreated for pain, as various studies have shown. It comes from the University of Virginia , and attributes this discrepancy to a startling bias: Some medical professionals believe there are biological differences between whites and blacks that direct their courses of treatment. “A substantial number of white laypeople and medical students and residents hold false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites, and demonstrates that these beliefs predict racial bias in pain perception and treatment recommendation accuracy,” the research notes. According to the school , the survey, led by Kelly M. Hoffman, a sixth-year doctoral candidate (All But Dissertation) in the social psychology program at the University of Virginia, asked 222 white medical students and residents to rate on a scale of zero to 10 the pain levels they would associate with two mock medical cases—a kidne