The power of representation in health care: Examining the effect of physician's race on interest in seeking medical care.

OBJECTIVE: Most U.S. physicians are White, creating racially/ethnically discordant patient-physician interactions for Latine Americans, the largest U.S. racial/ethnic minority group and the least likely to receive preventive care. Signaling in-group representation can increase use of medical services, so we examined whether Latine Americans perceive a Latine physician (minoritized ingroup) or a Black physician (minoritized outgroup) as more culturally competent and elicit greater interest in seeking care than a White physician (privileged outgroup).

METHOD: Across two studies, participants (N = 538) were randomly assigned to view an online profile of a Latine, Black, or White physician and then reported their anticipated social identity threat, interest in seeking care, willingness to comply with recommendations, and the physician's perceived cultural competence.

RESULTS: Latine participants did not anticipate less social identity threat from physicians of color (Study 1), but they expressed greater interest in seeing a Latine or Black physician than a White physician (Studies 1-2), anticipated greater compliance with them (Study 2), and perceived them as more culturally competent (Studies 1-2). Exploratory analyses showed perceived cultural competence mediated the effect of physician race/ethnicity on interest in care (Study 1), particularly among participants high in cultural mismatch (Study 2).

CONCLUSION: These findings provide experimental evidence that physicians of color can serve as identity safety cues for Latine Americans, underscoring the importance of diversifying health care settings to create culturally sensitive, safe environments for Latine patients. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).