The Physiology of Sociology: Students’ Biometric Response to Lessons on Race and Racism

Abstract

Because most White people remain uncomfortable discussing or even just hearing about anything to do with race, White students in sociology classrooms often become upset or even confrontational when topics like racism are covered. To examine the possibility that some students are actually having a physiological response to such course material, we used Polar Pro H10 team system (ECG) heart rate monitors to track a volunteer sample of students’ heart rate during an Introduction to Sociology lesson on racism. Results show that students had a mild to moderate stress response, but their responses were not uniform. Moreover, clusters of response patterns did not always fall along standard demographic categories. Drawing on comparative research on math anxiety, we conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for individual instructors’ pedagogy, theoretical concepts such as white fragility, and university policies and support services.