Blood pressure and psychological distress among North Africans in France: The role of perceived personal/group discrimination and gender.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between perceived ethnic discrimination and (physical and mental) health indicators among North African women and men living in France. METHODS: This study included 82 North Africans, aged 18-64 years. Perceived discrimination was measured at both group level (PGD) and personal level (PPD). The physical health indicator was blood pressure. The mental health indicator was self-reported psychological distress. RESULTS: Multiple regression analyses showed that higher levels of PGD predicted higher blood pressure. PPD was not related to blood pressure. PPD was positively related to psychological distress among women, but not among men. CONCLUSION: PPD and PGD are associated with physical and mental health indicators in different ways among North African women and men in France.

Empathy arousal and emotional reactions to victims of the gender pay gap.

Men and women are well aware of the gender pay gap. The present study involved four experiments (N = 341, student sample, N = 203 general population sample) in which we indirectly measured empathy by asking participants to rate the non-complex and complex emotions they felt when reading a scenario in which a woman described her pay situation. Experiments 1 (equal pay vs. unequal pay) and 2, 3 & 4 (angry vs. depressed reaction to pay inequality) investigate differences in empathy arousal between men and women by assessing their emotions. Globally, both men and women identified correctly emotions expressed by the women victim of pay inequity. On complex emotions, women express more other suffering emotions than men, only in Experiment 4. Coupled with expression of guilt/shame for men only, these results are discussed in the perspective of future research.