College Students' Perceptions of Demographic Distributions of Participants in Health Research Studies

This study aims to understand people’s perceptions of research participants in health studies. We will examine how people perceive the racial and gender diversity of health research participants compared to their perceptions about the broader US population. One study found that Black and White workers overestimated the progress of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) (Torrez et al., 2024). Additionally, Americans underestimate racial economic inequality, particularly the racial wealth gap between Black and White populations (Kraus et al., 2019). This shows there is a disconnect between perception and reality, as people believe more progress has been made than actually has. This study will help identify gaps in people’s perceptions about who participates in research studies. This research may potentially have implications for how people adhere to and trust research-related health advice. Citation: Kraus, M. W., Onyeador, I. N., Daumeyer, N. M., Rucker, J. M., & Richeson, J. A. (2019). The misperception of racial economic inequality. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(6), 899–921. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619863049 Torrez, B., Hollie, L., Richeson, J., & Kraus, M. W. (2023). The Misperception of Organizational Racial Progress toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xgmze