Monday, April 26, 2010
The human brain fires differently when dealing with people outside
of one's own race, according to new research out of the University
of Toronto Scarborough.
This research, conducted by social neuroscientists at UofT
Scarborough, explored the sensitivity of the "mirror-neuron-system"
to race and ethnicity. The researchers had study participants view
a series of videos while hooked up to electroencephalogram (EEG)
machines. The participants – all white – watched simple videos in
which men of different races picked up a glass and took a sip of
water. They watched white, black, South Asian and East Asian men
perform the task.
Typically, when people observe others perform a simple task, their
motor cortex region fires similarly to when they are performing the
task themselves. However, the UofT research team, led by PhD
student Jennifer Gutsell and Assistant Professor Dr. Michael
Inzlicht, found that participants' motor cortex was significantly
less likely to fire when they watched the visible minority men
perform the simple task. In some cases when participants watched
the non-white men performing the task, their brains actually
registered as little activity as when they watched a blank
screen.
"Previous research shows people are less likely to feel connected
to people outside their own ethnic groups, and we wanted to know
why," says Gutsell. "What we found is that there is a basic
difference in the way peoples' brains react to those from other
ethnic backgrounds. Observing someone of a different race produced
significantly less motor-cortex activity than observing a person of
one's own race. In other words, people were less likely to mentally
simulate the actions of other-race than same-race
people"
The trend was even more pronounced for participants who scored high
on a test measuring subtle racism, says Gutsell.
"The so-called mirror-neuron-system is thought to be an important
building block for empathy by allowing people to 'mirror' other
people's actions and emotions; our research indicates that this
basic building block is less reactive to people who belong to a
different race than you," says Inzlicht.
However, the team says cognitive perspective taking exercises, for
example, can increase empathy and understanding, thereby offering
hope to reduce prejudice. Gutsell and Inzlicht are now
investigating if this form of perspective-taking can have
measurable effects in the brain.
The team's findings are published in the Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology.
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University of Toronto
Thanks to University of Toronto for this article.