Study shows state level Disparity among Anti-Asian Attitudes

A recent study from New York University found that certain U.S. states exhibited a greater racial bias against Asian-born people and Asian Americans than other states.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Asian sentiments and discrimination have continued to rise, reports USA Today. NYU’s study further examines where anti-Asian sentiments may be stronger.

Researchers determined that Republican-majority and swing states showed more common stereotyping of Asians, including West Virginia, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa.

Such states also demonstrated a high implicit bias. Contrarily, states with older median ages and higher Asian populations reflected lower explicit bias, such as Hawaii, the District of Columbia, California, Nevada and Texas.

Nari Yoo, a third-year PhD student at NYU who led the research, expects her team’s findings to bring a new understanding concerning the prejudices faced by Asian Americans.

“These insights should guide future research and interventions to address biases effectively at the state level,” she said to the university.

The study compared disparities with implicit and explicit bias among states from 2018 to 2022. Yoo and her co-authors also honed in on factors like each state’s racial density, socioeconomic conditions and political climate that can affect people’s racial attitudes.