Two field experiments investigated discrimination in an online mental health care market. The subjects were 908 mental health care providers (MHPs) who advertise for clients on a website through which help-seekers email providers. Both studies measured MHPs’ receptiveness to an ostensibly black or white help-seeker requesting an appointment. In the first study, no racial or gender disparities were observed. However, help-seekers in the second study, who signaled lower education than those in the first, were confronted with significantly lower accessibility overall. Moreover, black help-seekers with low education and high social need (i.e., a caseworker) received significantly fewer positive responses than any other group. Although the two studies are not directly comparable, their results suggest a hierarchy of accessibility: MHPs prefer more educated help-seekers over less educated ones and among those less educated prefer black help-seekers with a caseworker the least. These disparities persist after controlling for MHPs’ sociodemographic and financial characteristics.

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“只是我喜欢与之共处的类型”：在线心理保健市场中的两个对应实地实验

两项现场实验调查了在线精神保健市场中的歧视。主题为908个精神卫生保健提供者（MHP），他们在网站上为客户做广告，通过该网站寻求帮助者通过电子邮件提供者。两项研究均测量了MHP对看似黑人或白人求助者的接受程度。在第一项研究中，未观察到种族或性别差异。但是，第二项研究中的求职者表示受教育程度低于第一项研究，但总体上可及性较低。此外，受教育程度低和社会需求高的黑人求助者（即案例工作者）得到的积极回应要少得多。尽管这两项研究没有直接可比性，但他们的研究结果提示了可及性的等级：MHP更喜欢受过良好教育的求职者，而不是受过较低教育的求助者，而在受过更少教育的人中，黑人求助者更是个案工作者。在控制了MHP的社会人口统计学和财务特征之后，这些差距仍然存在。