An Intensely Sympathetic Awareness: Experiential Similarity and Cultural Norms as Means for Gaining Older African Americans' Trust of Scientific Research

Researchers presented two innovative, testable methods for resolving the challenge of increasing older African Americans' participation in research studies. A total of 62 older African Americans were randomized to treatment and control conditions of a reminiscence intervention. Sensitivity to an African-American cultural form of respect for elders (recognition of worth and dignity) and intersections between the lived experience of the researcher and participants helped dispel this population's well-documented distrust of scientific research. Experiential similarities, in particular, may prove more useful to recruitment and retention than structural similarities such as age, race, or gender, the researchers concluded.

Sabir MG and Pillemer KA. An intensely sympathetic awareness: Experiential similarity and cultural norms as means for gaining older African Americans’ trust of scientific research. Journal of Aging Studies 2014;29:142-149.