No more secrets....

GuanYin

A recent study in New Hampshire has linked neurological patterms to personal prejudices.
Researchers took a group of students who claimed to have no racial prejudices. They pssychologically screened them with word associated tests designed to reveal inner prejudices and catagorised them accordingly.

Using brain imaging techniques, they then probed brain activity on exposure to images of people of two races. Some students showed significantly more activity in the frontal cortex areas when shown a black persons image and those students were more likely to have desplayed racial prejudice in the word associated tests.

There are many flaws with this kind of testing, most of them are highlighted in this weeks New Scientist Editorial, but if the area was ever perfected it would raise some serious issues on privacy.

These tests could be used in law suits and job applications and have far more implications than just highlighting prejudices.

How many people out there would really feel comfortable taking a test like this?

Syth

There is a difference between thinking a thing and acting out a thing. People should have (near) absolute freedom of thought. Read 1984. This cold turn into a way of people being afraid to think certain things. That shoudn't happen.

dudara

I agree with Syth. Privacy of thought has to be of utmost importance. Imagine not getting a job because it was discovered that you possessed some latent racial tendencies. Latent, because you night not have even known about them yourself.

Though studies like that are interesting. But I ofen wonder how contrived are they. The more science you study, the more you realise how you can create the data to suit your needs.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030523.html
we learn that most studies show that: (a) whites have an easier time recognizing white people than black people; (b) blacks have an easier time recognizing black people than white people; and (c) blacks and whites have an equally hard time recognizing Japanese people. The near universality of "own-race bias" suggests that the perception of difference has more to do with the observers than the observed--i.e., it's all in your head, and no one race actually demonstrates more facial uniformity than any other.

In other words people need less brain power to recognise/locate identifing characteristics from people of their own-race than others.
eg: for Europeans colour of hair and eyes are more useful as clues than for Afro-Americans...

GuanYin

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030523.html
we learn that most studies show that: (a) whites have an easier time recognizing white people than black people; (b) blacks have an easier time recognizing black people than white people; and (c) blacks and whites have an equally hard time recognizing Japanese people. The near universality of "own-race bias" suggests that the perception of difference has more to do with the observers than the observed--i.e., it's all in your head, and no one race actually demonstrates more facial uniformity than any other.

In other words people need less brain power to recognise/locate identifing characteristics from people of their own-race than others.
eg: for Europeans colour of hair and eyes are more useful as clues than for Afro-Americans...

In all fairness:

a) not really an on topic post :P

b) Thats a shockingly bad article:
"The point is this: Racial equality is poorly served by insisting that differences between groups don't exist. Even a seemingly elementary matter like identifying faces involves a subtle interplay between what we see and what we perceive."

Its basically down to pattern recognition so it doesn't matter about what race you have, if you put a caucasian baby in an all asian environment for 15 years, by the time he is an adult he will find it more difficult to discern non asian faces (including white) than asians. Thus its nothing to do with race but, environmental neural develoment.

Incidently it takes the same "brain power" for any recognition, its just a case of being able to make an association or not.

Now.... the topic isn't about race nor should it go that way, its about technology.

Capt'n Midnight

Are you sure it takes the same processing power to recognise the distinguishing characteristics of someone who has easily recognisible (from the subjects point of view) features than one who hasn't ?

Some students showed significantly more activity in the frontal cortex areas when shown a black persons image and those students were more likely to have desplayed racial prejudice in the word associated tests.

Strange the way it only mentions a "black person".

Yeah the article was bad - but was the only one I could find on facial recogniton differences between populations..

Anyway the point is that other factors beside prejudice might affect brain activity when presented with a image.

No doubt if a connection is proved then they will then do genetic tests to see if there is a marker for it.

Gattaca ?

PS. Anyone know the name of the guy who first did maze tests on Rats and showed that they recognised mazes from many many clues ?

GuanYin

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
Are you sure it takes the same processing power to recognise the distinguishing characteristics of someone who has easily recognisible (from the subjects point of view) features than one who hasn't ?
Strange the way it only mentions a "black person".

I'd imagine black person because they tested white students with black and white faces.

Activity isn't the same as processing power, we're not pentium chips! Current dictum on the subject say that exactly the same pathways in recognition. We either have reference association or not. Its what happens as a result that is of interest in that study.

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight

Anyway the point is that other factors beside prejudice might affect brain activity when presented with a image.

yep indeedy.

carl_

Capt'n Midnight:
PS. Anyone know the name of the guy who first did maze tests on Rats and showed that they recognised mazes from many many clues ?

Some lad called Young did the test in 1937 ... couldn't find any other info on him though.

It was mentioned in one of Feynman's lectures:
http://www.physics.brocku.ca/etc/cargo_cult_science.html

simu

How many people out there would really feel comfortable taking a test like this?

No way! People think the craziest things - they should be judged by their behaviour - that they've never acted in a prejudiced manner towards a person of a different race.