Examining the science of racism 

Psychological scientists describe research on the enduring and often hidden presence of racism at both the interpersonal and societal levels in the June issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.

White supremacist marches and xenophobic Twitter rants have brought overt racism to the center of public attention in recent months. Even still, subtle, structural, and systemic forms of racism continue to lurk in what is becoming an increasingly racially diverse United States. In a new collection of scholarly articles, psychological scientists describe research on the enduring and often hidden presence of racism at both the interpersonal and societal levels.

The articles are published in a special issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Yale University professor Jennifer Richeson, who has earned multiple awards and honors for her research on intergroup relations, including a MacArthur Genius Award, is editor of the special issue.

“Although a special issue is decidedly insufficient to cover all of the emerging research on the psychology of racism, the papers included here are poised to better position psychological science to inform and shape more thoughtful discourse regarding the nature of racism, how it affects individual cognition and health, and, importantly, how best to combat it,” Richeson writes in her introduction to the issue.

Source: Science of racism examined in new set of research articles