Brain scan 'identifies race bias among white people'

Ananova - 11/16/03
Brain scan 'identifies race bias among white people'

A brain scan that can apparently root out racists has been developed by scientists.

The technique was used on white volunteers shown photographs of black individuals.

In those with racist tendencies, a surge of activity was seen in part of the brain that controls thoughts and behaviour. Scientists believe this reflected volunteers' attempts to to curb their latent racism.

After interacting with real black individuals, the same group performed poorly in a task designed to test mental resources.

The American researchers concluded that harbouring racial prejudice, even unintentionally, stirred up an inner struggle that exhausted the brain.

Dr Jennifer Richeson, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, said: "We were surprised to find brain activity in response to faces of black individuals predicted how research participants performed on cognitive tasks after actual interracial interactions."

The scientists first measured the racial bias of 30 white individuals using a standard technique.

Volunteers were given a computer test to record the ease with which they associated with white and black racial groups with concepts that were positive or negative. Those with higher levels of racial bias took longer to associate white people with negative concepts and black people with positive concepts.

The study participants were then asked to interact with either a white or a black individual. Afterwards, they underwent a test which involved making a mental effort to inhibit instinctive responses.

The scan experiment employed a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map brain activity.