When I (JAS) was a first-time homeowner in a predominantly White area, my name revealed to others that I was not White. So, when I left my name on countless voicemails inquiring about the availability of contractors only to get no response, I had to wonder, “Is it me?” My White colleagues seemed to have no problem securing the same type of service. I couldn’t help but wonder why. I didn’t want to believe that I was being discriminated against.
What ensued was a series of thoughts that members of minority or marginalized groups experience all too often. I thought about all the other reasons this might be happening: “Maybe they’re all too busy,” “Maybe it’s a bad time of year,” or “maybe we live too far away.” Those interpretations would take away the sting—including anxiety and anger—I felt when I contemplated the notion that discrimination might be a part of my everyday reality.
Research has consistently shown that thinking of a situation in a more positive or less negative way—what some experts refer to as **positive reappraisal**—can help people change their emotions so that they feel better in many situations. But does positive reappraisal work when dealing with racial discrimination? While blaming the lack of response on more mundane factors (time, availability, etc.) may have lessened my frustration, I still felt a knot in the pit of my stomach at the possibility that racial discrimination was at play.
Racial discrimination attacks not only the individual, but also the racial group they belong to. This makes it particularly challenging to come up with a neutral or positive interpretation of discriminatory events. Trying to do so could even unintentionally highlight negative aspects of the situation as people ruminate about what just happened without coming to a satisfactory alternative interpretation.
My colleagues and I decided to experimentally test whether positive reappraisal helps people from racially minoritized groups deal with their emotions after experiencing racial discrimination. We asked Black and Latine college students across the country to imagine receiving a discriminatory comment or a rude comment from a professor. Immediately afterward they were asked to either ruminate about the event or positively reappraise the event for 3 minutes. They reported how angry and anxious they felt at the start of the study, after the imagined scenario, and after they ruminated or reappraised.
Generally, our findings were in line with our predictions. First, participants felt angry and anxious after experiencing both the rude and discriminatory comments, though the discriminatory comment elicited more anger and the rude comment elicited more anxiety.
Second, positive reappraisal was more effective than rumination in decreasing anxiety and anger.
However, looking for the silver lining didn’t work quite as well with racial discrimination. Positive reappraisal in response to discrimination was less effective in reducing anxiety than reappraisal in response to the rude comment and worked no better than ruminating after the discriminatory or rude comment.
Our study suggests that positive reappraisal isn’t very effective in a discrimination context. Other strategies may be needed to deal with the emotional fallout from this unique stressor. Luckily, some of our work and the work of other researchers offers some promising avenues for better outcomes when people confront discrimination. Understanding discriminatory experiences as part of a larger problem in society that is the result of systemic issues, can reduce the negative emotions evoked by such incidents. In other words, reappraising the discriminatory situation less as a personal insult and more as a result of an unjust society—a problem larger than themselves—may help people regulate the negative emotions they feel.
As psychologists, we not only want to identify effective ways to help people cope with discrimination and unfair treatment but also promote social justice to challenge and fight against the systems and social norms that make these experiences acceptable in the first place. This process may begin with recognizing discriminatory events for what they are, while acknowledging that the world needs social justice warriors to make “good trouble.”
**For Further Reading**
Soto, J. A., Albrecht Soto, S. L., Perez, C. R., Posada Rodríguez, C., & Newman, M. G. (2025). Examining the effectiveness of positive reappraisal in the context of discrimination. _Emotion_, 25(1), 247–258. [https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001422](https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001422)
**Sara Albrecht Soto** is in the final phase of her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Penn State. Her research and clinical practice converge in the aim of utilizing psychology to promote and highlight well-being and prosperity in marginalized communities.
**Camilo Posada Rodríguez** is a fourth-year PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program at Penn State. His research focuses on the intersection of racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender identity and well-being.
**José Soto** is a professor in Penn State’s Clinical Science program and the Associate Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Department of Psychology. He studies the intersections of culture, emotion, and health with a focus on understanding how the experiences of oppression and discrimination impact marginalized population.