Discrimination and Heart Rate Variability Responses in a Diverse Sample of Young Adults

Discrimination is commonly experienced by marginalized groups and is increasingly understood to be linked with heart rate variability (HRV), an index of cardiovascular and self-regulatory (e.g., emotion regulatory) function. The current study examined how self-reported discrimination might be linked with HRV responses while undergoing a social evaluative speech task in a diverse sample of young adults in the U.S. Continuous HRV was collected as participants (N = 158, M_age = 20.49, 58% female) completed the task. Lower self-reported discrimination was linked with a quadratic pattern (i.e., inverted U-shape) of HRV throughout the task, which reflects an adaptive self-regulatory response, whereas higher discrimination was associated with blunted HRV over the course of the task, suggesting little to no self-regulatory action. These data support the notion that higher discrimination might compromise self-regulatory capacity under circumstances unrelated to discrimination, as indicated by a blunted HRV response. Our novel findings contribute to the emerging literature on the key role of the parasympathetic nervous system, indexed by HRV, in linking higher discrimination with health and longevity.