People might even avoid situations where they expect they could be treated poorly, possibly missing out on educational and job opportunities. The anticipation of discrimination creates its own chronic stress. Regardless of your personal experiences, it can be stressful just being a member of a group that is often discriminated against, such as racial minorities or individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Stress evokes negative emotional responses, such as distress, sadness, and anger, and can often lead to an increase in behaviors that harm health, such as alcohol, tobacco, and other substance use, and a decrease in healthy activities, such as sleep and physical activity.ĭiscrimination can be damaging even if you haven’t been the target of overt acts of bias.
Research has found that the experience of discrimination-when perceived as such-can lead to a cascade of stress-related emotional, physical, and behavioral changes. Stress and healthĭiscrimination is a public health issue. Often, discrimination stems from fear and misunderstanding. But the values we place on different categories are learned-from our parents, our peers, and the observations we make about how the world works. Very young children quickly learn the difference between boys and girls, for instance. The human brain naturally puts things in categories to make sense of the world.
But explaining why it happens is more complicated. Discrimination is the unfair or prejudicial treatment of people and groups based on characteristics such as race, gender, age, or sexual orientation.
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