A Racialized Engine of Anxiety? Race,Reactivity,and the Uneven Tax of Credit Scores

Abstract

Research demonstrates that evaluations made via scores often induce anxiety and alter the behaviors of those being evaluated. Research further suggests that this so-called reactivity is not experienced equally. Yet, scholars do not fully understand what explains this variation. For whom does being scored induce reactivity and why? Drawing on insights from W.E.B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon, I argue that the experience of being scored differs across racial groups. I evaluate this claim by using a mixed-methods approach that combines interviews and an original national survey on consumer credit scoring. The interviews demonstrate that Black respondents’ credit scores exact a psychological and behavioral tax as the respondents indicate higher levels of anxiety and feeling that their score is a controlling factor in their lives. In contrast, White respondents recognize the importance of their credit scores for determining access to resources but do not see their scores as more significant beyond that. Survey analyses generalize these findings, showing substantial disparities in reactivity to credit scores between Black and White respondents even after the analyses account for economic factors like differences in their credit scores. These findings reveal credit scores as racialized engines of anxiety and yield new insight into the mechanisms that condition whether and to what extent being scored shapes behaviors.