摘要：Objectives. We examined whether and how racial prejudice at both the individual and community levels contributes to mortality risk among majority as well as minority group members. Methods. We used data on racial attitudes from the General Social Survey (1993–2002) prospectively linked to mortality data from the National Death Index through 2008. Results. Whites and Blacks living in communities with higher levels of racial prejudice were at an elevated risk of mortality, independent of individual and community sociodemographic characteristics and individually held racist beliefs (odds ratio = 1.24; 95% confidence interval = 1.04, 1.49). Living in a highly prejudiced community had similar harmful effects among both Blacks and Whites. Furthermore, the interaction observed between individual- and community-level racial prejudice indicated that respondents with higher levels of racial prejudice had lower survival rates if they lived in communities with low degrees of racial prejudice. Community-level social capital explained the relationship between community racial prejudice and mortality. Conclusions. Community-level racial prejudice may disrupt social capital, and reduced social capital is associated with increased mortality risk among both Whites and Blacks. Our results contribute to an emerging body of literature documenting the negative consequences of prejudice for population health. Racism and prejudice negatively affect the health of those targeted. 1 Recent experimental studies suggest that prejudice may also have a negative impact on individuals who harbor prejudicial attitudes. 2–4 For instance, in one investigation, participants with high levels of racial prejudice experienced increases in the stress hormone cortisol during interactions with members of a different racial group but not interactions with individuals from their same group. 4 In another study on stressful intergroup encounters, Whites interacting with Blacks exhibited maladaptive cardiovascular responses that were indicative of physiological threat. 2 Although these studies focused on prejudice at the individual level, community-level prejudice may also exert negative health effects among both minority and majority group members. In a cross-sectional, ecological study, researchers created a state-level measure of “collective disrespect” based on aggregate responses to a question about people’s attitudes regarding why Blacks had worse jobs, incomes, and housing than Whites (e.g., because of a lack of innate ability). In states with higher levels of collective disrespect toward Blacks, age-adjusted mortality rates were higher among both Blacks and Whites. 5 Although that study raised the intriguing possibility that community-level prejudice adversely affects the health of community members, it lacked individual-level data on mortality risk as well as on sociodemographic and behavioral risk factors for mortality, limiting the possibility of connecting prejudice to mortality at either the community or individual level. Furthermore, the researchers did not indicate the mechanisms that might explain why community-level prejudice harms health. In this study, we extended existing research by investigating the joint effects of individual- and community-level racial prejudice on mortality among Blacks and Whites in the United States. We further assessed the role of community social capital in mediating this relationship. Social capital—the extent of one’s social network and also whether norms such as trust are prevalent in a community 6 —has been subcategorized as “bonding” capital, which links similar individuals, or “bridging” capital, which connects dissimilar individuals. Whereas low levels of prejudice are associated with greater trust and diminished threat at the neighborhood level, 7 high levels of prejudice likely discourage residents from developing social capital with their neighbors, given reduced levels of trust and mutual reciprocity. In turn, low levels of social capital are associated with an increased risk of premature mortality. 8 To address our study aims, we used a multilevel discrete-time event history methodology that included mortality data for individuals who reported their beliefs about race and lived in communities across the United States. Thus, ours is the first study, to our knowledge, to determine whether individual- and community-level racial prejudice independently predict mortality risks among Blacks and Whites, whether the relationship between individual-level prejudice and mortality differs between high- and low-prejudice communities, and whether social capital explains elevated mortality risks in high-prejudice communities.
