The Social Neuroscience of Intergroup Relations:: Prejudice, can we cure it?

98 Pages·2016·1.308 MB·English

by  Sylvia Terbeck (auth.)

Sylvia Terbeck
The Social
Neuroscience
of Intergroup
Relations:
Prejudice, can we cure it?
The Social Neuroscience of Intergroup Relations:
Prejudice, can we cure it?
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Sylvia Terbeck
The Social Neuroscience
of Intergroup Relations:
Prejudice, can we cure it?
Sylvia Terbeck
School of Psychology
Plymouth University School of Psychology
Plymouth , UK
ISBN 978-3-319-46336-0 ISBN 978-3-319-46338-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-46338-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016955542
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
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This book is dedicated to Dr Laurence Paul
Chesterman.
Foreword
I n the Oxford English Dictionary, the word ‘prejudice’ is defi ned as ‘preconceived
opinion not based on reason or actual experience’. However, the Dictionary goes on
to note that in more recent times, the notion of prejudice specifi cally depicts ‘unrea-
soned dislike, hostility, or antagonism towards, or discrimination against, a race,
sex, or other class of people’. Considering the staggering amount of global violence
and suffering apparently based on ethnic, religious, and political differences, there
could hardly be a more important topic but what is the role for neuroscience? How
could a brain-based approach help us understand and deal with this overwhelming
problem, which seems self-evidently a matter for political and sociocultural
transformation?
Sylvia Terbeck’s fascinating book does not side step this challenge but explains
with great clarity and accessibility how the brain ultimately is the basis of all behav-
iour and that a scientifi c understanding of prejudice in no way neglects the political
and philosophical dimensions of this critical problem. Indeed neuroscience has
been able to make substantial progress in uncovering the implicit cognitive biases
and emotional responses and underpinning neural circuitry that mechanistically
drive the psychological processes involved in the intergroup behaviours – all too
often expressed as prejudice of various kinds.
One of the most powerful aspects of science is its potential to predict and control
aspects of the natural world, which in the context of neuroscience includes human
behaviour. Could an appropriate drug therefore be helpful in combating prejudice?
Here Sylvia’s discussion is particularly illuminating and well-informed, based as it
is on some fascinating studies that she personally conducted with a widely used
drug called propranolol, which apparently has the remarkable ability to decrease a
laboratory measure of implicit prejudice. However, Sylvia’s reservations about the
use of drugs to produce moral (or any other kind of) ‘enhancement’ are convincing
and highly topical.
vii
viii Foreword
I recommend this book to anyone wishing to understand how modern neurosci-
ence can be applied to the analysis of fundamental human behaviours, even those
that have caused strife and misery throughout recorded history. It takes a very
accomplished author to integrate in a readily comprehensible way, the neuroscience
approach with sociological, philosophical and political insights and this is what
Sylvia has achieved. Her book deserves to be widely read.
University of Oxford Phil Cowen
Oxford, UK
Acknowledgements
Firstly, I would like to thank Dr Laurence Paul Chesterman for his invaluable help.
I would like to thank Prof Phil Cowen for his excellent foreword, but also for being
my supervisor at Oxford University; the work could have not been completed with-
out him. I would also like to thank my fi rst supervisor Prof Miles Hewstone, also Dr
Guy Kahane, as well as Prof Julian Savulescu. I would have never thought about
moral enhancement – the topic Prof Julian Savulescu developed – otherwise. Thank
you also to Dr Sarah McTavish for your support and all members of the Oxford
Centre for Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
Very valuable comments and editing were conducted by my best friend Dr Ann
Dowker; thank you. Also thank you to my friend Uma Shahani, who made great
comments and suggestions. Thank you to Dr Bill Simpson, for discussing the book
with me.
F urthermore, many thanks to the 2015/2016 class of undergraduate social psy-
chology students from Plymouth University for comments, language editing, and
ideas, especially to Ella Dowden, Tom Harlow, Lillian Hawkins, Georgia Lewis,
Hana Tomaskova, Catherine Senior, Shannon Jackson, David Bennett, Fatin
Soufi eh, Abbie Cunningham, Shauna Barratt, Molly Russell, Jessica Haigh, Dean
Moreton, Nicole Keslake, Maria Presley, Amie Barlow, and Nicole Gayler.
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Contents
1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 1
1.1 What Is Happening in the Brain of Such a Person? ........................... 3
References ................................................................................................... 7
2 The Foundations of Prejudice and Discrimination ................................ 9
References ................................................................................................... 28
3 The Neuroscience of Prejudice ................................................................. 29
3.1 Neuroscience Research of Intergroup Relations ................................ 37
3.2 Basics of Psychopharmacology ......................................................... 46
References ................................................................................................... 48
4 Psychopharmacology and Prejudice ....................................................... 51
References ................................................................................................... 67
5 Neuroethics of Social Enhancement ........................................................ 69
5.1 What Is So Bad or Different About Drugs? ....................................... 75
References ................................................................................................... 82
6 What Should Be Done? ............................................................................. 85
6.1 Should We Cure Prejudice? ............................................................... 85
6.2 What Is Equality? What Do We Want? .............................................. 89
References ................................................................................................... 92
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