The whys of this phenomenon may be a medical predisposition but hey this is part of what makes each human bean an individual, non? That is the message of an unusual and striking new series of experiments conducted at Dartmouth College, with the help of brain-imaging equipment and a crew of undergraduate volunteers.

According to the findings, the more biased people are, the more their brain power is taxed by contact with someone of another race, as they struggle not to say or do anything offensive. The effect is so strong, the team found, that even a five-minute conversation with a black person left some of the white subjects unable to perform well on a test of cognitive ability.

''Just having a prejudice makes you stupider,'' said John Gabrieli, a professor of psychology at Stanford University who was not involved in the research. ''It is really interesting.'' (Full text here (http://Boston.com/dailyglobe2/321/nation/Bias_taxes_brain_research_finds+.shtml))Unfortunat ely, racists are merely a subset of, and not the only members of, the We Are Stupid set.

:m: Peace.

Does egalitarianism make you unable to spell?

Do you think the same results could be found in a Christian talking to an atheist?

It seems reasonable to suppose that you would get the same sort of results any time a person had to suppress their normal impulses. I imagine that I wouldn't do as well on a cognitive thinking test if I had just spent a period of time having to be polite to a religious fundamentalist.

Originally posted by Xev
Does egalitarianism make you unable to spell? :D

Human bean is valid enough if youve read any Roald Dahl when you were young.

Or perhaps the lesson to be learned is to not suppress your honest reactions, thoughts and ideas when in the presence of those that it wil offend.

Maybe the study proves that Political Correctness causes stupidity.

EVERYTHING is turning out to be a mixture of genetic predisposition and early nudging to encourage that predisposition and ignite it.
And to be honest I'm not surprised.
I am one of those that never thought humans consisted of magic elements.

We are animals, that is fact. We aren't born with survival instincts like a shark, we are mammals, and like other mammals we are born as selective sponges instead, ready to absorb what our genetic predispostion is thirsting for. That was one of the main changes the evolutionary change from reptiles to mammals entailed, it was what birthed the concept of being "raised by parents".

We still run on instincts just like sharks. But they were encoded into us after birth. Thats just how mammals work.
Sometimes people are born with a predisposition to serial killing but never become serial killers, from an evolutionary stand point they weren't raised correctly. Its almost like if they weren't taught how to speak.

If you are a racist, murderer, rapist, saint, homo, whatever, you were born that way, and raised "correctly" according to your genetic disposition.
We're all one of the many paths homo-sapiens could have taken, instead they took all of them due to a lack of natural selection.
In case you can't tell I'm making it quite obvious the concept of choice is an irrelevence.

No one could choose to be a racist, they might feel like they can, but they don't have the capacity to make such choices.
They themselves weren't their choice, therefore every "choice" they make is not really their choice by extension.

goofyfish

there is a direct correlation apilicable but the
theories of what is the cause and effect argument is not as easy as some might like to think...

Dr Lou Natic
i hope that one day you will gain a better understanding of the human being and realise how skewed your concept is ..
there is truth in some aspects of what you say but that is sometimes inclined to lead you to a point of consollidated theory
and factualisation to a point of imovability

anywho
just my 1 cent worth :)

Originally posted by guthrie
Human bean is valid enough if youve read any Roald Dahl when you were young. I meant "human bean" -- I think she was ragging me for the thread title.

:m: Peace.

Originally posted by ripleofdeath
Dr Lou Natic
i hope that one day you will gain a better understanding of the human being and realise how skewed your concept is ..
Will you please teach me more about the human being by pointing out my mistakes?