An Experimental Analogue Evaluation of Asian and Asian Americans’ Immediate Reactions to Therapist Microaggressions

Abstract

Microaggressions are subtle, everyday exchanges that convey discriminatory messages. In psychotherapy, client reports of microaggressions are negatively associated with important therapeutic processes and outcomes. However, many studies are retrospective and correlational, and cannot establish the causal impact of specific therapist statements. In this study, Asian and Asian American participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 66) watched a brief animated counseling vignette, and were randomly assigned to four types of therapist responses to the client (control, subtle, moderate, and overt microaggressions). We assessed emotional reactions, perceptions of the session, and offensiveness of therapist statements. In general, moderate and overt microaggressions were rated much more negatively (Cohen’s d’s > 1.0) than subtle microaggressions or control statements (which were not significantly different from each other on any measure). We discuss implications for research, practice, and training.