Editorial: media exploitation, racism and health

Pre-existing beliefs and expectations influence judgments of novel health information

The present study examined whether health information is judged differently depending on pre-existing beliefs and expectations. People's initial beliefs and expectations were assessed by a questionnaire about acupuncture and a trustworthiness and preference rating task of doctors' faces. Then, newspaper headlines about novel acupuncture treatment were shown and rated for their feasibility in a normal and framed condition. The judged feasibility of the newspaper headlines correlated strongly with initial beliefs about acupuncture in the normal condition, and with initial expectations towards a doctor's face in the framed condition. Thus, as suggested by Bayes Theorem, pre-existing beliefs and expectations influence judgments of novel health information.

Multiple Pathways Linking Racism to Health Outcomes

This commentary discusses advances in the conceptual understanding of racism and selected research findings in the social neurosciences. The traditional stress and coping model holds that racism constitutes a source of aversive experiences that, when perceived by the individual, eventually lead to poor health outcomes. Current evidence points to additional psychophysiological pathways linking facets of racist environments with physiological reactions that contribute to disease. The alternative pathways emphasize prenatal experiences, subcortical emotional neural circuits, conscious and preconscious emotion regulation, perseverative cognitions, and negative affective states stemming from racist cognitive schemata. Recognition of these pathways challenges change agents to use an array of cognitive and self-controlling interventions in mitigating racism's impact. Additionally, it charges policy makers to develop strategies that eliminate deep-seated structural aspects of racism in society.

Human exploitation is not a joke--so don't laugh!

In a previous article, I called for an open discussion and debate on health psychology perspectives on social and political issues relevant to health, in particular the issue concerning racism and the media (Estacio, 2009). In this article, I raise three topics for discussion which the controversial BBC 'Harry and Paul' sketch (un)intentionally exposed to the public domain: (1) racist humour, the media and health; (2) human rights abuses against domestic workers; and (3) third world poverty and labour migration. Its implications on health psychology theory, research and practice are also explored.