Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Pain. 2022 Apr 1;163(4):745-752. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002419.
Research has demonstrated racial disparities in pain care such that Black patients often receive poorer pain care than White patients. Little is known about mechanisms accounting for the emergence of such disparities. The present study had 2 aims. First, we examined whether White observers' attentional processing of pain (using a visual search task [VST] indexing attentional engagement to and attentional disengagement from pain) and estimation of pain experience differed between White vs Black faces. Second, we examined whether these differences were moderated by (1) racially biased beliefs about pain experience and (2) the level of pain expressed by Black vs White faces. Participants consisted of 102 observers (87 females) who performed a VST assessing pain-related attention to White vs Black avatar pain faces. Participants also reported on racially biased beliefs about White vs Black individuals' pain experience and rated the pain intensities expressed by White and Black avatar faces. Results indicated facilitated attentional engagement towards Black (vs White) pain faces. Furthermore, observers who more strongly endorsed the belief that White individuals experience pain more easily than Black individuals had less difficulty disengaging from Black (vs White) pain faces. Regarding pain estimations, observers gave higher pain ratings to Black (vs White) faces expressing high pain and White (vs Black) faces expressing no pain. The current findings attest to the importance of future research into the role of observer attentional processing of sufferers' pain in understanding racial disparities in pain care. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed, and future research directions are outlined.
研究表明，在疼痛护理方面存在种族差异，即黑人患者接受的疼痛护理往往不如白人患者。对于导致这种差异出现的机制，人们知之甚少。本研究有两个目的。首先，我们考察了白人观察者对疼痛的注意力处理（使用视觉搜索任务[VST]来衡量对疼痛的注意力参与和注意力脱离）以及对疼痛体验的估计是否因白人面孔和黑人面孔而有所不同。其次，我们考察了这些差异是否受到（1）对疼痛体验的种族偏见信念和（2）黑人面孔和白人面孔表达的疼痛水平的调节。参与者由 102 名观察者（87 名女性）组成，他们执行了一个 VST，评估了对白人面孔和黑人面孔的与疼痛相关的注意力。参与者还报告了对白人个体和黑人个体疼痛体验的种族偏见信念，并对白人面孔和黑人面孔所表达的疼痛强度进行了评分。结果表明，观察者对黑人疼痛面孔的注意力更容易集中。此外，那些更强烈地认为白人比黑人更容易体验疼痛的观察者，在从黑人疼痛面孔上转移注意力时则较为困难。关于疼痛估计，观察者给表达高度疼痛的黑人（vs 白人）面孔和表达无疼痛的白人（vs 黑人）面孔的疼痛评分更高。目前的研究结果证明了未来研究观察者对患者疼痛的注意力处理在理解疼痛护理中的种族差异方面的重要性。讨论了理论和临床意义，并概述了未来的研究方向。
