NCT06113926

Racial Discrimination, Pain, and the Buffering Influences of Acknowledgment

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 92 (actual)
• Sponsor: George Washington University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 30 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Black young adults (aged 18-30; N = 92) were racially included (i.e., received the ball an equal number of times) or excluded (i.e., received the ball only once) by other White players in a ball-tossing computer game called Cyberball; White experimenters acknowledged the exclusion for half of the excluded participants. Participants completed a cold-pressor task twice to measure pain sensitivity (threshold, tolerance, and unpleasantness): immediately prior, and after the Cyberball (and acknowledgment) manipulation. Participants also completed a post-manipulation survey examining the psychological effects of racial exclusion and acknowledgment (i.e., psychological needs satisfaction, negative affect, control).

Conditions

• Pain, Acute

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Bystander Acknowledgment	The experimenter said "That is so messed up that they excluded you in the task. And honestly, I would say it was racist…" acknowledgment of the participants experience, "…this shouldn't have happened, and I'm really sorry it did…" an apology, and "…I'm going to talk to the primary investigators of the study to figure out how we can make sure that this won't happen to other people" a plan of action.

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-09-01
• Primary completion: 2023-01-31
• Completion: 2023-01-31
• First posted: 2023-11-02
• Last updated: 2023-11-02

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States