Scholars@Duke
Laura Smart Richman

Laura Smart Richman

Adjunct Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences
Population Health Sciences
Box 104023, Durham, NC 27708-0085
215 Morris St., Suite 210, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications

Social Relationships, Wealth, and Cardiometabolic Risk: Evidence from a National Longitudinal Study of U.S. Older Adults.

Journal Article J Aging Health · October 2022 Objectives: To investigate multiple dimensions of social relationships related to biomarkers of cardiometabolic health and how their associations vary by wealth in older adults. Methods: Growth curve models were used to investigate the longitudinal associa ... Full text Link to item Cite

Meta-analysis of interpersonal discrimination and health-related behaviors.

Journal Article Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · May 2022 ObjectiveThis article comprehensively examines the relationship between interpersonal discrimination (IPD) and health-related behavior (HB), expanding upon Pascoe and Richman's (2009) meta-analysis and research synthesis.MethodOne hundred ... Full text Cite

Defining gentrification for epidemiologic research: A systematic review.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2020 Neighborhoods have a profound impact on individual health. There is growing interest in the role of dynamic changes to neighborhoods-including gentrification-on the health of residents. However, research on the association between gentrification and health ... Full text Link to item Cite

Quantifying intersectionality: An important advancement for health inequality research.

Journal Article Soc Sci Med · April 2019 BACKGROUND: Intersectionality is a powerful theoretical framework that is useful in describing the lived experiences of people with multiple marginalized statuses. By focusing on power and domination (e.g., racism, sexism), and the ways in which they are i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Addressing health inequalities in diverse, rural communities: An unmet need.

Journal Article SSM Popul Health · April 2019 Research on rural health needs to represent the diverse demographics of these regions by carefully considering the distinct characteristics, inequities, and stressors occurring in rural communities. Drawing from our own findings and other empirical investi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Racial (vs. self) affirmation as a protective mechanism against the effects of racial exclusion on negative affect and substance use vulnerability among black young adults.

Journal Article J Behav Med · April 2018 Affirming one's racial identity may help protect against the harmful effects of racial exclusion on substance use cognitions. This study examined whether racial versus self-affirmation (vs. no affirmation) buffers against the effects of racial exclusion on ... Full text Link to item Cite

Repairing the Leaky Pipeline: A Motivationally Supportive Intervention to Enhance Persistence in Undergraduate Science Pathways.

Journal Article Contemp Educ Psychol · April 2018 The current study reports on the efficacy of a multi-faceted motivationally designed undergraduate enrichment summer program for supporting science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) persistence. Structural equation modeling was used to compare summe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Interpersonal discrimination and physical health

Chapter · December 6, 2017 Interpersonal discrimination contributes to health inequalities for disadvantaged groups across numerous stigmatized identities. This effect has been found using cross-sectional, prospective, and experimental designs. Interpersonal discrimination has been ... Full text Cite

Effect of Stigma and Concealment on Avoidant-Oriented Friendship Goals

Journal Article Journal of Social Issues · June 1, 2017 In this research, we propose a hypothesized model that outlines pathways by which stigma impacts interpersonal behavior within close relationships through avoidant-oriented friendship goals. We also examine how stigma concealment moderates the extent to wh ... Full text Cite

Power poses–where do we stand?

Journal Article Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology · January 2, 2017 Full text Cite

Validation of the Food-Linked Virtual Response task.

Journal Article J Health Psychol · January 2017 This research validates a computerized dietary selection task (Food-Linked Virtual Response or FLVR) for use in studies of food consumption. In two studies, FLVR task responses were compared with measures of health consciousness, mood, body mass index, per ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Heteronormativity and practitioner-patient interaction.

Journal Article Health Commun · 2016 Heteronormativity is the presumption of heterosexuality as the default sexual orientation and can result in discrimination against the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) population. This study serves as one of the first experimental studies to examine hetero ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Stigma-Based Rejection and the Detection of Signs of Acceptance

Journal Article Social Psychological and Personality Science · January 1, 2016 After people experience social rejection, one tactic to restore a sense of belonging is to selectively attend to and readily perceive cues that connote acceptance. The multimotive model of responses to rejection suggests that contextual features of the rej ... Full text Open Access Cite

An identity-based motivational model of the effects of perceived discrimination on health-related behaviors

Journal Article Group Processes & Intergroup Relations · 2016 Perceived discrimination is associated with increased engagement in unhealthy behaviors. We propose an identity-based pathway to explain this link. Drawing on an identity-based motivation model of health behaviors (Oyserman, Fryberg, & Yoder, 2007), we pro ... Full text Open Access Cite

A Pharmacology-Based Enrichment Program for Undergraduates Promotes Interest in Science.

Journal Article CBE Life Sci Educ · 2015 There is a strong need to increase the number of undergraduate students who pursue careers in science to provide the "fuel" that will power a science and technology-driven U.S. economy. Prior research suggests that both evidence-based teaching methods and ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Energy information engagement among the poor: Predicting participation in a free workshop

Journal Article Energy Research and Social Science · December 1, 2014 Although one option for increasing low-income consumer knowledge regarding household energy use is the development of free or low-cost educational workshops, exactly how to promote attendance for such workshops remains an open question. Here we briefly out ... Full text Open Access Cite

A Multilevel Analysis of Stigma and Health: Implications for Research and Policy

Journal Article Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences · October 1, 2014 This article reviews research on stigma and discrimination—at both the interpersonal and societal levels—faced by disadvantaged groups. Research on interpersonal discrimination primarily concerns discrimination that is perceived and directly experienced (e ... Full text Open Access Cite

Self-regulatory processes underlying structural stigma and health.

Journal Article Soc Sci Med · February 2014 In this article, we examine self-regulatory processes that are initiated by structural stigma. To date, the literature on self-regulation as a mechanism that underlies stigma and health outcomes has focused primarily on harmful health-related behaviors tha ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Interactive Effects of Discrimination and Racial Identity on Alcohol-Related Thoughts and Use

Journal Article Basic and Applied Social Psychology · July 1, 2013 The interrelationships among racial discrimination, non race-based rejection, racial identity (RI), and alcohol cognitions and use were assessed in this research. In Study 1, individuals who experienced overt discrimination and who were high in RI were les ... Full text Open Access Cite

The serotonin transporter gene polymorphism (5HTTLPR) moderates the effect of adolescent environmental conditions on self-esteem in young adulthood: a structural equation modeling approach.

Journal Article Biol Psychol · September 2012 Here we examine the effects of both self-reported and independent observer-reported environmental risk indices, the serotonin transporter gene promoter (5HTTLPR) polymorphism, and their interaction on self-esteem. This trait was assessed during early and m ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

How women cope: Being a numerical minority in a male-dominated profession

Journal Article Journal of Social Issues · September 1, 2011 Women who have academic careers in engineering have successfully navigated the social identity threats that prevent many other women from feeling that they belong in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. In this research, we examined what fact ... Full text Open Access Cite

Effect of discrimination on food decisions

Journal Article Self and Identity · July 1, 2011 This research examined effects of discrimination on food decisions. In Study 1, reflecting upon past experiences of discrimination, as compared to a neutral topic, caused an increased desire to consume unhealthy foods. In Study 2, participants received a n ... Full text Open Access Cite

The association of optimism and perceived discrimination with health care utilization in adults with sickle cell disease.

Journal Article J Natl Med Assoc · November 2010 OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the effect of perceived discrimination, optimism, and their interaction on health care utilization among African American adults with sickle cell disease (SCD). METHODS: Measures of optimism and perceived discrimination were obtaine ... Full text Link to item Cite

The effects of perceived discrimination on ambulatory blood pressure and affective responses to interpersonal stress modeled over 24 hours.

Journal Article Health Psychol · July 2010 OBJECTIVE: This research examined the impact of perceived discrimination on ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and daily level affect during social interaction. DESIGN: For 24 hrs, adult Black and White participants wore an ABP monitor and completed palm pilo ... Full text Link to item Cite

The relationship between mental vitality and cardiovascular health.

Journal Article Psychol Health · October 2009 Past measurement of vitality has included both emotional and physical components. Since aspects of physical vitality such as fatigue can be indicative of physical illness, the usefulness of existing measures of vitality to predict health is limited. This r ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Perceived discrimination and health: a meta-analytic review.

Journal Article Psychol Bull · July 2009 Perceived discrimination has been studied with regard to its impact on several types of health effects. This meta-analysis provides a comprehensive account of the relationships between multiple forms of perceived discrimination and both mental and physical ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Reactions to discrimination, stigmatization, ostracism, and other forms of interpersonal rejection: a multimotive model.

Journal Article Psychol Rev · April 2009 This article describes a new model that provides a framework for understanding people's reactions to threats to social acceptance and belonging as they occur in the context of diverse phenomena such as rejection, discrimination, ostracism, betrayal, and st ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

The Effects of Race, Past Discrimination, and Time on Ambulatory Blood Pressure Modeled Over 24-hours

Journal Article Health Psychology · 2009 Objective: This research examined the impact of perceived discrimination on ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and daily-level affect during social interaction. Design: For 24 hours, adult African American and Caucasian participants wore an ABP monitor and ... Cite

The effects of race-related stress on cortisol reactivity in the laboratory: implications of the Duke lacrosse scandal.

Journal Article Ann Behav Med · February 2008 BACKGROUND: The experience of race-related stressors is associated with physiological stress responses. However, much is unknown still about the complex relationship between how race-related stressors are perceived and experienced and potential moderators ... Full text Link to item Cite

Discrimination, dispositions, and cardiovascular responses to stress.

Journal Article Health Psychol · November 2007 OBJECTIVE: Recent research suggests that past exposure to discrimination may influence perceptions of, and physiological responses to, new challenges. The authors examined how race and trait levels of hostility and optimism interact with past exposure to d ... Full text Link to item Cite

The role of discrimination and racial identity for mental health service utilization

Journal Article Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology · October 1, 2007 Several reports have documented different patterns in mental health service utilization among ethnic minority groups, particularly for Black Americans, in comparison to Whites. In this research, we examined individual variables that may underlie these diff ... Full text Cite

Why do people with an anxiety disorder utilize more nonmental health care than those without?

Journal Article Health Psychol · September 2007 OBJECTIVE: It is unclear why nonmental healthcare utilization is greater among those with psychological problems. The authors examined healthcare utilization in HMO patients to determine whether greater utilization in anxiety disorder (AD) patients was exp ... Full text Link to item Cite

Positive emotion and health: going beyond the negative.

Journal Article Health Psychol · July 2005 This study examined the relationships between positive emotions and health. Two positive emotions were considered, hope and curiosity, in conjunction with 3 physician-diagnosed disease outcomes: hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and respiratory tract infect ... Full text Link to item Cite

Covering up what can't be seen: concealable stigma and mental control.

Journal Article J Pers Soc Psychol · September 1999 In these studies the authors examined the effects of concealing a stigma in a social interaction relevant to the stigma. An interview paradigm called for undergraduate female participants who either did or did not have eating disordered characteristics to ... Full text Link to item Cite

Deep cognitive activation: a new approach to the unconscious.

Journal Article J Consult Clin Psychol · December 1997 Deep cognitive activation occurs when a thought is so accessible as to have measurable effects on behavior or judgement, but is yet not consciously reportable. This state of mind has unique properties mimicking some characteristics of the psychoanalytic un ... Full text Link to item Cite

Strength of will

Journal Article Psychological Inquiry · 1996 Cite

Relation of threatened egotism to violence and aggression: the dark side of high self-esteem.

Journal Article Psychol Rev · January 1996 Conventional wisdom has regarded low self-esteem as an important cause of violence, but the opposite view is theoretically viable. An interdisciplinary review of evidence about aggression, crime, and violence contradicted the view that low self-esteem is a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Measuring coping flexibility in the general population

Journal Article Psychology & Health · 1994 Cite