A study by University of Chicago researchers, published this month in the peer-reviewed journal Social Science & Medicine, found that clinicians at a Chicago hospital were more likely to exhibit racial bias toward patients than were their counterparts at a hospital in Nice, France.

The survey of 83 Chicago-based clinicians and 81 Nice-based clinicians asked participants to read case notes about a hypothetical hypertension patient. Apart from race — white or black — the notes were identical.

The clinicians were then asked to answer questions pertaining to the patient’s likelihood of recovery. The researchers found that the US providers were, on average, more pessimistic about the hypothetical black patient’s outcome than they were about the white patient’s outcome. The French clinicians exhibited no such disparity.

“We found in the U.S. that the reason clinicians saw black patients as less likely to improve is because they saw those patients as less personally responsible for their health than their white counterparts,” said Natalia Khosla, a co-author of the study.

Read the full story here, from WTTW Chicago Tonight‘s Kristen Thometz.