Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association
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According to worldview verification theory, inconsistencies between lived experiences and worldviews are psychologically threatening. These inconsistencies may be key determinants of stress processes that influence cardiovascular health disparities. This preliminary examination considers how experiencing injustice can affect perceived racism and biological stress reactivity among African Americans. Guided by worldview verification theory, it was hypothesized that responses to receiving an unfair outcome would be moderated by fairness of the accompanying decision process, and that this effect would further depend on the consistency of the decision process with preexisting justice beliefs. ⋯ Biological and psychological processes that contribute to cardiovascular health disparities are affected by consistency between individual-level and contextual justice factors. (PsycINFO Database Record