Black Feminist Neuroscience: A Mixed Methods Exploration of the Culture of Dissemblance and How Black Women’s Sociopolitical Positioning Influences Neural Emotional Processing Restricted; Files Only
Taylor, Linzie (Spring 2026)
Abstract
Black women face disproportionate exposure to psychosocial stressors, including racial discrimination and sexual and interpersonal violence. On top of these women must navigate a society that consistently ignored and dismissing Black women's emotionality, as such Black women have learned to mask their emotions to protect their inner emotional worlds from outside harm or misjudgment. This culturally learned masking of emotional expression is known as the culture of dissemblance and scholars believe it may contribute to disparities in mood and stress disorders. However, the neuroscientific and neuropsychiatric literature has yet to fully contextualize emotional processing findings within Black women's lived experiences. The current dissertation examines how racial discrimination and social visibility influence affective neural processing and emotion regulation in Black women, integrating neuroimaging and qualitative approaches. Across three studies, Black women completed fMRI tasks involving passive viewing of emotionally salient scenes and an adapted paradigm simulating high and low social visibility, alongside qualitative interviews assessing emotional engagement. The first study found that greater racial discrimination frequency was associated with diminished right fusiform gyrus reactivity to positive scenes, suggesting discrimination shapes visual engagement with positive emotional stimuli. The second study examined neural correlates of the culture of dissemblance, finding that experimentally increasing social visibility to promote a potential demand to suppress or mask emotions decreased middle occipital lobe engagement. Women reporting greater habitual use of emotional suppression relative to an alternate emotion regulation strategy, reappraisal, demonstrated dampened amygdala reactivity to negative affective stimuli during high versus low visibility. This effect was moderated by discrimination experiences and Black identity. The third study used qualitative interviews to further contextualize these findings, revealing that Black women commonly monitor and suppress emotional expression particularly of negative emotions like anger in response to anticipated negative social judgment, consistent with the culture of dissemblance. Together, these findings demonstrate that racial discrimination and social visibility interact with habitual emotion regulation strategies to shape affective neural processing in Black women. While suppression is typically considered maladaptive, results suggest it may be effective in high-visibility contexts. Furthermore, visual processing appears to play an important role linking effects of psychosocial stressors like racial discrimination and social visibility on emotional processing. Future research should explore how these culturally informed patterns engage visual processing regions and how cultural nuances underlying emotion regulation strategies can inform the development of culturally aware interventions for mood and stress disorders.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: DISPARITIES IN BLACK WOMEN’S HEALTH AND THE BLACK FEMINIST SOLUTION 1
1.1 Context, Authors’ Contribution, and Acknowledgement of Reproduction2
1.2 Disparities in Black women’s health 2
1.3 Bias in science: Addressing White Western Individualistic Bias4
1.4 Black feminism as a relational solution that centers and values Black women5
1.5 Experimental approach8
1.6 Racial discrimination influences stress and affective response8
1.7 Neural correlates of effects of racial discrimination10
1.8 Racial discrimination influences mental health13
1.9 Emotion Regulation14
1.10 Culture of dissemblance17
1.11 Neural correlates18
1.12 Social effects on emotional perception and expression20
1.13 Dissertation goals and aims21
1.14 Black feminist theoretical grounding for qualitative and mixed methodological approach23
1.14.1 The Erotic: Rationale for alternative sources of knowledge and incorporation of lived experiences23
1.14.2 Valuing Lived Experiences25
1.14.3 Sociopolitical positioning of Black women and (dis)ability25
CHAPTER 2: EFFECTS OF EXPERIENCES OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ON THE PROCESSING OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL STIMULI 29
2.1 Context, Authors’ Contribution, and Acknowledgement of Reproduction30
2.2 Abstract30
2.3 Introduction31
2.3.1 Regulatory and salience regions are implicated in social stress31
2.3.2 Discrimination influences affective regulation and the stress response33
2.3.3 Current Study35
2.4 Materials and Methods35
2.4.1 Participants 35
2.4.2 Measures36
2.4.3 Procedures for fMRI visit37
2.4.4 MRI scan parameters38
2.4.5 MRI processing and analysis38
2.4.6 Statistical analysis39
2.5 Results40
2.5.1 Effect of EOD on subjective emotional arousal ratings41
2.5.2 Association between EOD and BOLD responses to negative and positive affective stimuli41
2.6 Discussion42
2.6.1 Contextual factors associated with EOD 42
2.6.2 No sig. association between discrimination and ROI activity43
2.6.3 Negative association between discrimination and right fusiform gyrus reactivity to positive vs. neutral scenes43
2.6.4 Limitations45
2.7 Conclusions45
2.8 Acknowledgments46
CHAPTER 3: EMOTION PROCESSING IN BLACK WOMEN: SOCIAL VISIBILITY AND THE CULTURE OF DISSEMBLANCE 52
3.1 Context, Authors’ Contribution, and Acknowledgement of Reproduction53
3.2 Abstract53
3.3 Introduction54
3.3.1 Emotions and society: Race and cultural influences on Emotion Regulation55
3.3.2 The Culture of Dissemblance56
3.3.3 Neural correlates of emotion regulation and the influence of race, culture, and ethnicity 57
3.3.4 Current Study59
3.4 Methods60
3.4.1 Participants60
3.4.2 Procedures61
3.4.3 Self-report measures62
3.4.4 fMRI task64
3.4.5 MRI scan parameters66
3.4.6 MRI data conversion and quality control66
3.4.7 Anatomical data preprocessing67
3.4.8 Functional data preprocessing68
3.4.9 Statistical analysis70
3.4.10 Hypothesis testing71
3.4.11 Selection of covariates73
3.5 Results74
3.5.1 Sample characteristics74
3.5.2 Effect of emotion conditions in ROIs74
3.5.3 Effect of social visibility manipulation on neural responses to emotional images75
3.5.4 Associations between emotion regulation (ERQ) and amygdala engagement76
3.5.5 Moderation of association between emotion regulation strategies and ROI engagement by EOD77
3.5.6 Moderation of association between emotion regulation strategies and ROI engagement by public regard for Black identity77
3.6 Discussion77
3.6.1 Sample Characteristics78
3.6.2 Effects of social visibility on neural emotional processing79
3.6.3 High social visibility resulted in more widespread engagement of expressive suppression neural correlates 80
3.6.4 Habitual emotion regulation strategy usage predicted amygdala response to negative scenes during the watched condition 81
3.6.5 Racial experiences and understandings moderate relationship between emotion regulation strategies and amygdala reactivity to negative scenes during the watched condition82
3.6.6 Limitations and Future Directions84
3.7 Conclusion85
CHAPTER 4: ASSESSMENT OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE CULTURE OF DISSEMBLANCE IN THE LIVES OF PERIMENOPAUSAL AMERICAN BLACK WOMEN112
4.1 Context, Authors’ Contribution, and Acknowledgement of Reproduction113
4.2 Abstract113
4.3 Introduction114
4.3.1 Interpersonal violence and sociopolitical positioning115
4.3.2 Mixed methodological approach117
4.3.3 Current study119
4.4 Materials and Methods120
4.4.1 Rationale for qualitative research and mixed methods integration120
4.4.2 Participants and data collection121
4.4.3 Conceptual map and coding system122
4.4.4 Code reliability123
4.4.5 Thematic qualitative analysis124
4.4.6 Mixed qualitative-quantitative analysis 124
4.5 Qualitative Results125
4.5.1 Code frequencies and relations125
4.5.2 Themes from interviews126
4.5.2.1 Influence of stressors on emotional expression126
4.5.2.2 Influence of emotional perception on emotional expression130
4.5.2.3 Emotion regulation strategies132
4.5.2.4 Safe spaces for emotional expression133
4.6 Mixed Methods Results135
4.6.1 No association between COD endorsement and left amygdala engagement136
4.6.2 COD endorsement moderates the association between emotional regulation strategies and amygdala engagement136
4.6.3 Trauma load and burden correlate with COD endorsement137
4.6.4 Exploring the culture of dissemblance by individual cases137
4.6.4.1 Low COD endorsement138
4.6.4.2 High COD endorsement142
4.7 Discussion146
4.7.1 Understanding themes in broader literature146
4.7.1.1 Influence of stereotypes and negative perceptions146
4.7.1.2 Code-switching148
4.7.2 Understanding themes within neuroimaging paper150
4.7.3 Individual cases153
4.8 Conclusion156
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS180
5.1 Summarization of dissertation findings181
5.2 Culture of dissemblance overlaps with emotion regulation strategy of distraction183
5.3 Contribution to the field185
5.4 Future Directions187
5.6 Conclusions188
References192
About this Dissertation
| School | |
|---|---|
| Department | |
| Subfield / Discipline | |
| Degree | |
| Submission | |
| Language |
|
| Research Field | |
| Keyword | |
| Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor |
Primary PDF
| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
File download under embargo until 27 May 2032 | 2026-04-28 12:03:30 -0400 | File download under embargo until 27 May 2032 |
Supplemental Files
| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Actions |
|---|