People who desire to avoid negative emotions are less likely to acknowledge systemic racism

A new study published in the journal Emotion has found that the more people try to avoid feeling negative emotions, the less likely they are to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism. The research suggests that interventions designed to reduce this tendency must be implemented thoughtfully, taking into account cultural norms that often discourage confronting discomfort. This study sheds light on how emotional avoidance might serve as an obstacle to recognizing and addressing racial injustice.

The murder of George Floyd and other tragic events in recent years have brought widespread attention to issues of racial injustice in the United States. Acknowledging systemic racism is considered an important step toward addressing it, yet many individuals often avoid these conversations. The researchers were interested in understanding whether this desire to avoid negative feelings might act as a barrier to acknowledging racism.

“My students and I have been studying how people’s desire to want to avoid feeling negative shapes how much people notice other people’s suffering,” said study author Birgit Koopmann-Holm, an associate professor of psychology at Santa Clara University.

“Acknowledging systemic racism is one specific instance of perceiving that people are suffering, so we wanted to examine whether wanting to avoid feeling negative also shapes how much people acknowledge systemic racism. Understanding why some people are more likely to acknowledge systemic racism is important because this understanding could guide interventions to help people acknowledge racism as a first step to becoming anti-racist.”

In the first study, the researchers wanted to explore whether there was a link between people’s desire to avoid negative emotions and their willingness to acknowledge systemic racism. To do this, they surveyed 104 undergraduate students from Santa Clara University. The participants were asked to complete a series of questionnaires that measured how much they wanted to avoid negative emotions and were asked to rate their perceptions of racism in various scenarios. These scenarios included both isolated incidents of racism (such as an individual being denied service due to their race) and examples of systemic racism (like racial disparities in areas such as housing and employment).

To make sure their findings were accurate, the researchers controlled for several other factors that are known to influence people’s beliefs about racism. These included political ideology (how liberal or conservative someone is), ethnicity, and moral foundations, which are the basic ethical principles that guide decision-making.

The findings of the first study revealed a clear link between the desire to avoid negative emotions and the acknowledgment of systemic racism. Participants who reported a stronger desire to avoid negative emotions were less likely to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism, even after controlling for factors like political beliefs and ethnicity.

Interestingly, the desire to avoid negative feelings did not affect participants’ acknowledgment of isolated acts of racism. This suggests that while people might be willing to recognize individual instances of discrimination, they are less likely to confront broader, more uncomfortable issues like systemic racism if they are highly motivated to avoid negative emotions.

“We found that wanting to avoid feeling negative is a barrier to acknowledging systemic racism, that is, the more people want to avoid feeling negative, the less they acknowledge that systemic racism exists,” Koopmann-Holm told PsyPost. “This finding held even after taking political beliefs, ethnicity, and moral values into account, factors that have been shown to be associated with systemic racism beliefs.”

For the second study, the researchers set out to test whether people’s motivation to avoid negative emotions could directly influence their acknowledgment of systemic racism. To do this, they designed an experiment in which they manipulated participants’ desire to avoid negative feelings. The 116 participants, who again were undergraduate students, were randomly assigned to one of three groups.

In one group, participants were instructed to avoid negative emotions while completing the survey, while another group was encouraged to accept and embrace negative emotions. The third group served as a control, receiving no specific instructions about how to handle their emotions. Participants were asked how much they wanted to avoid negative emotions in the present moment, serving as a test of the manipulation.

The goal of this experiment was to see if participants who were told to avoid negative feelings would be less likely to acknowledge systemic racism, compared to those in the other two groups. The results confirmed this hypothesis: participants who were instructed to avoid negative emotions reported a higher desire to avoid negative emotions and acknowledged systemic racism less than those in the control group. However, the group encouraged to accept negative emotions did not differ significantly from the control group, suggesting that the manipulation was not successful.

“While we were able to increase people’s desire to want to avoid feeling negative, which caused people to acknowledge systemic racism less, we were not able to decrease people’s desire to want to avoid feeling negative,” Koopmann-Holm explained. “Our other research suggests that people in the U.S. want to avoid feeling negative more than people in other cultural contexts, so people in the U.S. might need very specific instructions on how to accept feeling negative.”

“Because we were not able to decrease how much people want to avoid feeling negative, we do not yet know whether this would cause people to acknowledge systemic racism more. This is what we are examining in our current research.”

As with all studies, there were limitations that need to be considered when interpreting the findings. For instance, the study’s sample consisted entirely of undergraduate students from a liberal college in the San Francisco Bay Area. This group may not represent the broader U.S. population, especially in terms of racial attitudes or experiences.

One important area for future research is to examine how cultural norms influence the avoidance of negative feelings. The researchers note that in the United States, there is a strong cultural emphasis on avoiding negative emotions, which may make it especially difficult for Americans to confront issues like systemic racism. Comparing these findings to other cultures with different emotional norms, such as Germany or China, could provide valuable insights into how emotional avoidance is shaped by society.

Another important direction is developing more effective interventions to reduce people’s desire to avoid negative emotions. The researchers suggest that longer and more immersive interventions may be needed to help individuals become more comfortable with negative feelings. These interventions might include exposure to uncomfortable emotions in controlled environments, which could help people realize that negative emotions are not as overwhelming as they might seem. Over time, this could lower their motivation to avoid discomfort, potentially leading to greater acknowledgment of systemic racism.

“We are currently investigating whether we can decrease people’s desire to want to avoid feeling negative with a stronger manipulation to examine whether this would cause people to acknowledge systemic racism more as a first step to becoming anti-racist,” Koopmann-Holm said.

The study, “Facing Discomfort: Avoided Negative Affect Shapes the Acknowledgment of Systemic Racism,” was authored by Kara Murray and Birgit Koopmann-Holm.