Spatial Inequality and Residential Segregation (10A) - MCAT Psychological and Social Foundations

Wealthier areas raise more revenue, producing better-resourced schools/services. Creates feedback loop where wealth begets better public goods.

Area with limited access to affordable, nutritious food retailers. Low-income areas lack supermarkets, forcing reliance on convenience stores.

Local context shapes outcomes such as health, education, crime, and mobility. ZIP code predicts life outcomes through concentrated advantages/disadvantages.

Segregation enforced by laws or explicit government policies. Legal mandates create official racial/ethnic separation.

Physical separation of groups into different neighborhoods. Results from housing discrimination and socioeconomic factors.

Unequal distribution of resources and opportunities across places. Geographic disparities create unequal life chances by location.

Property-tax-based funding creates unequal school resources by area. Wealthy districts have more tax revenue for schools.

Jobs move to suburbs while low-income residents remain in cities. Geographic disconnect between workers and employment.

Local context causally influences outcomes beyond individual traits. Place shapes outcomes through resources and exposures.

Human-made surroundings shaping behavior (housing, parks, transit). Physical infrastructure affects health behaviors directly.

Areas with limited access to affordable, nutritious food. Geographic barriers to healthy eating options.

Reduced social capital and fewer local institutional resources. Weak networks limit opportunities and collective efficacy.

Guiding buyers to neighborhoods based on race, reinforcing separation. Illegal practice that perpetuates neighborhood racial composition.

Inducing White flight to profit from panic-driven home sales. Real estate agents exploited racial fears for profit.

Dominant groups maintain separation via discrimination and barriers. Structural racism limits minority residential choices regardless of income.

Human-made surroundings that shape access, exposure, and behavior. Infrastructure and design affect walkability, safety, and health.

Area with limited access to affordable, nutritious food retailers. Lack of supermarkets forces reliance on unhealthy convenience stores.

In-migration of higher-income residents raising costs and displacement. Often displaces long-term residents who can't afford rising rents.

Unequal distribution of resources and opportunities across places. Geography determines access to jobs, schools, healthcare, and services.

Physical separation of groups into different neighborhoods. Creates homogeneous neighborhoods by race, ethnicity, or income.

Denying credit/insurance in areas labeled high-risk, often by race. Banks drew red lines on maps around minority neighborhoods.

Greater SES leads to moving into less segregated mainstream areas. Economic mobility enables residential mobility to better areas.

High poverty clustered in specific areas, often with limited services. Creates cumulative disadvantage through resource deprivation.

Unequal access to resources and opportunities across geographic areas. Results from geographic disparities in services, wealth, and infrastructure.

SES provides flexible resources that protect health across risks. Money, knowledge, and power buffer health risks universally.

Housing steering. Agents show different homes based on buyer's race.

Restrictive covenants. Legal contracts banned racial minorities from buying.

Unequal access to care, healthy food, safe housing, and clean air. Place determines exposure to health resources and risks.

Income inequality is between people; spatial inequality is between places. Individual vs. geographic distribution of resources.