Purpose: To examine salivary cortisol responses to a racially-charged stimulus in a group of African-American individuals. Methods: A nonrandom sample of 245 (age: 43.8  11.1 years; 64% female) African-American individuals was recruited by advertisements. Specifically, salivary cortisol was assessed prior to and after being exposed to a racially-charged movie clip. In addition, the salivary cortisol was assessed in the morning and evening of the day following exposure to the racially-charged

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... vie clip. Results: A statistically significant increase in cortisol was found (P < 0.005) in the whole sample. High cortisol responders (highest tertile) and low cortisol responders (lowest tertile) were com-pared. The high cortisol responders had an elevated cortisol level the following morning (P < 0.05) that abated by the evening sample (P > 0.20). In addition, the high cortisol responders who were younger, had lower waist to hip ratios, and experienced less lifetime discrimination than the low cortisol responders (P's < 0.05). Conclusions: The findings of an increase in cortisol in response to a racial provocation may provide a potential explanatory factor for the increased rates of cardiovascular disease in African-American individuals.