It's no secret that when the economy takes a turn for the worse, racial minorities often take a disproportionate hit. But why?

A new study may provide at least part of the answer--and it's rather disturbing.

“It is well known that socioeconomic disparities between White Americans and racial minorities expand dramatically under conditions of economic scarcity,” study co-author Dr. David Amodio, a psychology professor at New York University, said in a written statement. “Our findings indicate that scarcity changes the way that the people visually perceive another person’s race, and that this perceptual distortion can contribute to disparities.”