THE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF RACISM
Contributor: Aditya Sil
Date Last Updated: 18 September, 2020
Racism is amongst the most prevalent social issues in modern societies today. But what is the neuropsychological basis of this discriminatory behaviour? Our brains are programmed to be able to distinguish between different groups of people and though this may be useful in certain situations, in-group bias often results in problematic behaviours in everyday life. So what exactly does this psychological phenomenon say about us and how we interact with other people?
In-Group Bias
In-group bias is by no means exclusive to national or ethnic groups. It can be observed when fans of a certain sports team exhibit a bias against the opposing team or when students from a top university compete against other top university students. This bias can also enable us to feel a sense of belonging, for example when you meet someone that shares the same hobbies and interests as you. If we were to pinpoint a brain region that is responsible for all this social categorisation, it would be the medial prefrontal cortex. Interestingly, in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study where participants were asked to contemplate their character traits, this same brain region showed higher levels of activity. This makes sense considering that we closely associate ourselves with the groups that we identify with. These groups are often a reflection of our background, values or ideals. However, it is this strong sense of belonging to a specific social group that tends to give rise to competition and overall bias against other groups.
A Psychological Defence Mechanism
In many cases, racism and other forms of xenophobia serve as a psychological defence mechanism and is rooted in feelings of anxiety or insecurity. According to research, when people are made more aware of their own mortality, they become more anxious and insecure. Subsequently, they can become significantly more prone to prejudice, hostility towards other groups, and status-seeking behaviour. These people are much more likely to affiliate themselves with their national or ethnic group to be part of something bigger than themselves and to feel a sense of belonging. However, by conforming to the culturally accepted values and ideals in their respective groups, they may grow belligerent to other groups as a means of further strengthening their group identity, engendering cultural intolerance.
How We Perceive Others
How we perceive other peoples’ actions can strongly differ based on what group someone is a part of. In one study, participants were split into two groups and they were then made to watch videos of participants — from both their own group and the opposing group — perform a series of hand movements. When asked to rate the speed of the hand movements, it was found that on average, people rated their own team to be faster. Unbeknownst to them, the hand movements in the videos were in fact at the same speed. Hence, their ratings serve to exemplify the effect of in-group bias. Moreover, this type of bias does not only act in response to stimuli, but it has an effect very early on in perception. This was evidenced by an additional fMRI study of the same task. Scientists found that those who reported a greater difference in the speed of hand movements between the competing groups showed higher activity in the inferior parietal lobule of the brain which coordinates perception and action. This indicates the extent to which in-group bias is drilled into our brains, influencing our perception of the world.
Furthermore, our capacity to empathise with others can also be subject to our personal biases. In fact, a study used fMRI to record brain activity of white and Chinese participants when watching videos of white and Chinese people being touched by a Q-tip or poked by a syringe. The study showed that when participants watched someone of their own ethnic group experiencing pain when being poked by a syringe, the anterior cingulate cortex and inferior frontal cortex were stimulated. Interestingly, these brain regions are also activated when someone experiences pain firsthand. Therefore, we tend to empathise more with people of the same ethnic or national group as us because we can more vividly imagine their pain. On the other hand, it is also easier for us to react less sensitively to people from other groups that may be experiencing similar struggles.
Racism: Innate or Learned?
Given all this information, we can begin to see the origins of racism within our brains. Evolutionary psychologists even theorise that this type of behaviour is innately human, a product of evolution. According to this theory, our ancestors would not have benefitted from altruism or the sharing of resources. Instead, by subjugating other groups, they would be able to increase their access to resources by eliminating the competition. Contradictory to this idea, anthropologists studying contemporary hunter-gatherer groups have generally not been able to observe any competitive or territorial behaviour from hunter-gatherer groups within a common vicinity.
This being said, though this behaviour is not naturally built into us, we begin to pick up on racial stereotypes and prejudices starting from a very young age. This can be due to a range of different reasons, including inaccurate media representation and influence from friends or family members. Though we may not be actively racist, racial stereotypes still thrive within our brains. We must make a constant effort to regulate our thoughts and actions to unlearn false information.
One fMRI study specifically investigated the conscious and subconscious neural response to faces of people with a different ethnic background. White participants were presented with pictures of faces of African American individuals, each picture being presented so briefly that they could not be consciously processed. In subconscious processing, the participants were found to have higher activation of the amygdala, an area of the brain that is involved in emotion processing, particularly associated with fear, anxiety and aggression. In contrast, when each picture was shown for a longer time, as to allow conscious processing, regions in the frontal cortex were more activated. These regions are involved in cognitive control and emotion regulation. The initial response is a form of internalised racism, a result of external influences which shaped this mode of thinking starting from an early age. Subsequently, the brain then regulates this emotional response based on what is socially acceptable and what the individual has previously learned.
Summary
To sum up, racism is essentially the fruit of psychological ill-health, stemming from feelings of anxiety and insecurity. This causes people to suppress other groups to elevate themselves. It is important to remember that racism exists on a spectrum. Most of us are not pure racists or pure non-racists, but we fall somewhere in between the two. At some point in our lives, racist ideologies and stereotypes will have made some sort of long-lasting impact on us. What is most important, however, is to be self-aware, make a conscious effort to educate ourselves on the topic and be part of the change in our communities.
References
Ocklenburg, Sebastian. “The Neuroscience of Racism.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 2 June 2020, www.psychologytoday.com/sg/blog/the-asymmetric-brain/202006/the-neuroscience-racism.
Taylor, Steve. “The Psychology of Racism.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 19 Jan. 2018, www.psychologytoday.com/sg/blog/out-the-darkness/201801/the-psychology-racism.