Media releases

  • Brock and McMaster universities to renew collaboration

    MEDIA RELEASE: 2 January 2020 – R00001

    McMaster University and Brock University are expanding their partnership and will sign a renewed collaboration agreement with additional shared academic initiatives.

    The signing will take place Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 10 a.m. at the Niagara Regional Campus of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, which is located in the Roy & Lois Cairns Health & Bioscience Research Complex at Brock University.

    Following the signing, members of the media are invited to join Brock and McMaster students and faculty for a tour of the anatomy lab shared by students from the two schools.

    What: Brock University and McMaster University Memorandum of Understanding signing

    When: Wednesday, Jan. 8, 10 a.m.

    Where: Niagara Regional Campus, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine McMaster University at the Roy & Lois Cairns Health & Bioscience Research Complex, Room 240, Brock University

    Who: Paul O’Byrne, Dean and Vice-President, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University; Gervan Fearon, President, Brock University; Amanda Bell, Regional Assistant Dean, Niagara Regional Campus McMaster University; Peter Tiidus, Dean, Applied Health Sciences, Brock University.

    Members of the media are asked to RSVP to Dan Dakin and park in Reserved Lot A in front of the Roy & Lois Cairns Health & Bioscience Research Complex on the day of the signing.

    For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

    * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

    * Veronica McGuire, Media Relations, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University
    vmcguir@mcmaster.ca, 289-776-6952

    – 30 –

    Categories: Media releases

  • Brock research shows gap in perception of racial discrimination

    MEDIA RELEASE: 20 December 2019 – R00193

    New research out of Brock University’s Department of Psychology examines the notion of ‘white loss’ and shows wide variation between perceptions and experiences of discrimination among members of different races and political parties.

    Megan Earle, PhD student, and Professor Gordon Hodson published the study, “Questioning white losses and anti-white discrimination in the United States,” in Nature Human Behaviour last week. It has since been widely cited in the media and is detailed in a Psychology Today article.

    “At the time of developing the study, we saw a lot of media coverage regarding white nationalist rallies and claims of white loss, or perceptions that white people are losing out to racial minorities,” explains Earle. “We wanted to test empirically whether perceptions of white loss had any merit.”

    The researchers gathered reported incidents of daily discrimination, as well as in the workplace and hate crimes among white and black people and compared the reports with perceptions of discrimination in these same groups. They also compared the perceptions of Republicans and Democrats.

    “In our data, anti-white discrimination was found overall to be low, having remained low over the past several decades,” says Hodson. “Although anti-white discrimination does sometimes occur, it tends to be rare relative to discrimination faced by black people in the U.S.”

    The team’s findings also show that declines in discrimination against black people has not coincided with increases in discrimination against white people.

    “On the contrary, our findings suggest that declines in discrimination against blacks generally coincided with declines in discrimination against whites,” says Earle. “As we state in the paper, the rising tide of progress is lifting all boats.”

    The study also finds that although people generally believe that anti-black discrimination exceeds anti-white discrimination, there are wide differences in the amount of discrimination each group perceives.

    “White people, Republicans and especially white Republicans seem to underestimate the amount of discrimination faced by blacks,” Hodson states.

    “People also appear to have misperceptions about the gap in discrimination faced by the groups,” Earle adds. “Democrats tend to perceive that the gap in discrimination faced by blacks and whites is larger than what reported experiences suggest, whereas Republicans tend to perceive that blacks and whites face more similar amounts of discrimination compared to what reported experiences suggest. Both the left and the right, therefore, are inaccurate, but in different ways.”

    With polarization top of mind in U.S. politics at the moment, this gap is noteworthy because, as Hodson points out, “it shows considerable disagreement between Democrats and Republicans in their perceptions of racial discrimination in the United States. Such differences in perceptions may play a role in widening differences in opinions regarding public policy on this issue.”

    The team will continue examining reactions to perceived change in the status quo among traditionally advantaged group members and plans to spearhead a special journal issue on this topic featuring papers from top international scholars in the new year.

    For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

    * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

    Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

    – 30 –

    Categories: Media releases