Global racism and colorism, the preference for fairer skin even within ethnic and racial groups, leads millions of women of African, Asian, and Latin descent to use products with chemical ingredients intended to lighten skin color. Drawing from literatures on the impact of chronic and situational disempowerment on behavioral risk-taking to enhance status, we hypothesized that activating feelings of disempowerment would increase women of color’s interest in stronger and riskier products meant to lighten skin tone quickly and effectively. In two experiments (Experiment 1: N = 253 women and 264 men; Experiment 2: replication study, N = 318 women) with distinct samples of Indian participants, we found that being in a state of psychological disempowerment (vs. empowerment) increased Indian women’s preference for stronger and riskier skin lightening products but not for milder products. Indian men’s interest in both types of products was unaffected by the same psychological disempowerment prime. Based on these findings, we recommend increased consideration among teaching faculty, research scholars, and clinicians on how feeling disempowered can lead women of color to take risks to lighten their skin as well as other issues of intersectionality and with respect to colorism. We also encourage the adoption of policies aimed at empowering women of color and minimizing access to harmful skin lightening products.

全球种族主义和色彩主义，甚至在种族和种族群体中也偏爱更白皙的皮肤，这导致数百万非洲，亚洲和拉丁裔的妇女使用含有化学成分的产品来减轻肤色。我们从有关慢性和情境剥夺权力的行为对提高地位的冒险行为的影响的文献中汲取了经验，我们假设激活剥夺权力的感觉会增加有色女性对更强和风险更高的产品的兴趣，这些产品旨在快速有效地淡化肤色。在两个实验中（实验1：N = 253名女性和264名男性；实验2：复制研究，N= 318名女性）在印度参与者中有不同的样本，我们发现处于心理无权（相对于赋权）的状态增加了印度女性对更强和风险更高的美白产品的偏爱，但对温和产品的偏爱却不大。印度男性对这两种产品的兴趣不受相同的心理丧失能力的影响。基于这些发现，我们建议在教学教授，研究学者和临床医生中更多地考虑失去权能如何导致有色女性冒着减轻肤色的风险以及其他与交配有关的问题以及与色偏有关的问题。我们还鼓励采取旨在赋予女性肤色并最大程度减少使用有害的亮肤产品的政策。