No racial bias? Really? A brain scan may give you away.

Our brains may empathize along racial lines, even if we report no such bias. 

Observers shown video clips of subjects receiving painful stimuli showed increased brain activation in the areas associated with empathy and emotion when subjects shared the observer’s race, Chinese researchers reported in a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience on Wednesday. 

The study is the first to use brain imaging technology to confirm subconscious in-group prejudice, a topic that has been investigated since the 1950s.

Perceiving others’ pain is an automatic reaction that activates the same neural circuit in the brain as the one that is activated during first-person pain. This kind of empathic response has been shown, in studies, to be stronger if there is a connection between individuals. For example, a 2002 study showed that white college students who read a passage involving a black or white man charged with a criminal act reported greater empathy for, and assigned more lenient punishments to, the white defendant.

In this study, from Peking University in Beijing, Chinese and Caucasian university participants watched video clips showing faces of Chinese and Caucasian models with neutral expressions receiving either a painful (needle penetration) or non-painful (Q-tip touch) stimulation on the cheek. 

The participants were then asked to rate the amount of pain the model felt, as well as their own level of discomfort while watching the jabs. 

Race had no effect on the survey responses by either Chinese or Caucasian observers. But the same was not true in their brains.

While participants watched the videos, researchers used functional MRI to scan what was going on inside their heads. The scans revealed increased activation in the brain regions that mediate the empathic neural response. But when the painful simulations were applied to subjects who shared a race with observers, the neural responses increased significantly more than when the ones being stuck with needles were of the other racial group.

The findings suggest that bias against those from other groups may exist at a fundamental level in the human mind, despite what self-reports reveal. 

“If this is confirmed in future research, people then should be careful about their own behaviors during social interaction even though we intend to deal with in-group and out-group members equally well at the conscious level of the mind,” says coauthor Shihui Han, a professor at Peking University's Department of Psychology, in an e-mail.

-- Shara Yurkiewicz

Comments

[scott]

the age old problem of projecting superiority within a limited context of inside/ outside thinking of limited context instead of iinclusion and the potential advantages of unique attributes, and circumstances, I would suggest that punishment is more severe within closed groups where behaviors are outside the expected norm.(embarressment) Race specific or otherwise. Outside groups may be tolorated more out of neccessity if differences and exclusion are blatently obvious. the paridox of the research stipulation prior to examination and summary.

common artifact of studies. Yes studies have value but become part of other studies with different parameters..

Usually enabled by a deeper level of interaction, longer time period and unique hypothetical concept.

Studies that are too specific tend to be data points to broader concepts.

for example:Differences between emergency care workers, dentists and child care workers, Age race occupation, social status etc. .

[Privilege of Parenting]

Interesting study. Still, it may be that those who are closer to our same background more powerfully trigger mirror neurons, and this might not be fairly labeled or understood as "bias" against the other group. Since we do have conscious minds to moderate our quasi-unconscious reactions, the advice of the researcher to be conscious in social interactions is a good idea. It would be interesting to see how mixed race subjects did on similar test, as well as adopted kids whose parents were different race.

Finally, Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" has some really interesting things to say on this topic, especially related to bias the is cultural (i..e he, who is part African-American, tested biased against black at the neurological level, but by exposing oneself to positive images of a given group and then taking the test again, the subject is "primed" to have a more positive response).

In other words we can do more than just be aware, we can deliberately shape our brains in more fair and less prejudicial directions.