Can our unconscious bias affect the way that we respond to medicine?
There was a study done just a few years ago where they did an allergy test, and as part of the allergy test they used an antihistamine cream that was a placebo. They were testing to see how people would react, based under certain conditions.
And so here’s how the test went. An allergy test, as you may know, is where they test your skin for various allergies by picking a patch of your skin, usually your back or a part of your arm, and they label it for sometimes a lot, like 40 different allergens, and they label each spot, then they prick you with each of these chemicals or toxins and see how your skin reacts.
And if you are allergic, your skin will turn red. It will swell up. It will become itchy. If you’re not allergic, then you won’t have any reaction at all. And so they can do this with a lot of things all at the same time.
How They Set Up The Test Using Placebos
Now, they used an antihistamine cream, which should ease the swelling, but an antihistamine cream actually has medicine in it. Instead they actually used a placebo. So they used a cream that they were told was an antihistamine, but the cream was actually just a milky substance with no medical or chemical property that would affect their reaction. And so what they were actually testing for is how they would respond to different doctors that they interacted with.
They did control groups with the real antihistamine cream, then they did people with just the placebo, and then they tested different doctors. And so they had white doctors, they had Asian doctors, they had black doctors. They also tested between male and female doctors.
And it was interesting because they asked each of the people who were participating in this allergy test, but they were also testing this other element. And when they asked them, “How do you feel about your doctor?” Most people responded very positively. They said that they felt like the women physicians were warmer and more competent, and they said that the Asian and Black physicians were warm and equally competent to their peers, but their skin told a different story.
What This Test Revealed
They found that the people had a stronger allergic reaction, even when administered the antihistamine cream that was just a placebo, when they were treated by women or black physicians. What’s happening here is their bodies are reacting in a way that kind of reveals their unconscious bias in a way that isn’t conscious.
So if you ask them out loud they will respond that they are competent and warm, “I think my doctor is great.” But their bodies are responding in a different way. And so what they were looking for and what they were trying to figure out is, how do our internal biases affect our ability to respond to medicine? And they found that there was kind of a clear link.
An Example of how Unconscious Bias Might Affect You
And so when we think about bias and how we interact with people in other situations like say in a real estate transaction. Let’s say you’re hosting an open house and you have someone come in. It’s somebody that you feel comfortable with. You feel like you know their culture, you feel like you could easily relate to this person.
And so you build a quick rapport with them. You’re joking. You’re showing them around, you’re sharing about you, you’re asking them about them, very common. You feel very comfortable.
But then later another person comes in, and this person is not like you. They don’t share your culture. They might look different than you, and it’s a person that you just don’t feel as comfortable with. Maybe you have an unconscious bias related to this person’s demographic.
Now, based on this study, potentially a lot of the reason that we treat them differently might be because our bodies react differently when we see them, when we approach them. We have an allergic reaction, almost, based on this study, when we have an unconscious bias toward a person.
And so when someone comes in that we don’t feel comfortable with, what happens? Our body kind of tightens up. We close off, our body language changes in a way that makes us not as welcoming, not as open. And so we may accidentally end up treating people differently simply because we feel different when they’re around.
And you probably experience this, a lot of times you’ll have a feeling and you don’t know where it comes from. You don’t know why you feel this way. So when you have an uncomfortable feeling, you start to kind of figure out why, or you start to protect yourself or you hesitate before you engage, you know, to kind of make sure you’re being safe. You don’t offer as much about yourself because you just don’t feel as comfortable doing so.
What We Can Take Away From This Study
And so I think this test is a really good insight when we talk about implicit bias, unconscious bias, and when we interact with people who we don’t feel like are part of our group or part of our people, it’s not just a mental thing.
Like, there’s a common phrase, “I don’t see color.” Right? It’s not what you see. It’s not what you are trying to do consciously with your mind. It’s the way your whole body reacts when you interact with someone like that. And so a lot of times that can create a situation where we don’t give equal service, where we don’t treat somebody fairly.
If it happened once or twice, it’s a smaller deal. But what if it’s happening in big groups? What if everybody on the block has that kind of unconscious bias? What if everyone in the city has that unconscious bias? What if everyone in the state does? You know what? If everyone in the country does? Then those individuals who don’t fit into the main mold, who don’t match everybody else around them, maybe they don’t get the same opportunities that everyone else does.
And it’s nothing intentional that anyone’s doing, but it is a widespread sensation where nobody feels comfortable. Their bodies are all reacting in a way that is like a physical reaction. In this study, they were getting allergic reactions from the allergens from the chemicals, but when they were offered the medicine, their body did not respond to the placebo effect the same way that they would if they did not have that bias.
So this to me was a really eye opening experience. To read this study and to think about it in my own life, I have a few experiences that I could share about these types of interactions and how if we want to be loving and if we want to have a fair market, even if I don’t want to be friends with another person, I want to be treated fairly in the market. I want them to be treated fair.
That’s what an open, free market is, right? Everyone gets the same opportunity. If I want to have that equal opportunity for everybody, I need to recognize in what ways I am not treating people fairly, unconsciously in ways that aren’t my intention, but they are possibly the way that I physically react when I get into a situation where I don’t feel comfortable with a person.
And so, I would encourage you to think about this in yourself and think about studies like this which show that we do have a physical reaction in these situations. Think about how we can maybe overcome that and create a market that’s more fair and more open, so that it’s fair for us as well as all those that we work with.