Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

submittedVersion

Publication Date

5-2023

Abstract

Experiencing everyday discrimination can have a significant negative impact on an individual’s wellbeing. While much attention has been paid to the physical and mental health consequences of discrimination, less is known about how discrimination can affect cognitive health, and most existing work has been conducted in laboratory settings where participants recall discrimination retrospectively. Given the artificial environment and susceptibility to recall bias in such procedures, the current study utilised two daily diary studies, consisting of young adults in Singapore (Study 1; N = 484) and midlife adults from the US (Study 2; N = 3577), to examine the association between discrimination and cognitive failures in daily life. Multilevel modelling revealed consistent evidence that experiencing discrimination was associated with poorer cognitive health at both the within- and between-person levels. These associations between discrimination and cognitive health remained robust even after controlling for demographic covariates previously found to affect cognitive health, as well as daily stressor exposure. These findings suggest that the experiences of everyday discrimination may lead to poorer daily cognitive functioning regardless of whether discrimination was experienced in a daily context or across the lifespan, and indicate importance of raising awareness on the harmful cognitive consequences of discrimination.

Keywords

Discrimination, Cognitive failures, Daily diary, Multilevel modelling

Discipline

Cognition and Perception | Multicultural Psychology | Social Psychology

Research Areas

Psychology

Publication

International Journal of Intercultural Relations

Volume

94

First Page

1

Last Page

12

ISSN

0147-1767

Identifier

10.1016/j.ijintrel.2023.101805

Publisher

Elsevier

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2023.101805

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