29 August 2020 | New Scientist | 43W
HY are we prejudiced? What
happens in our brains when
we make assumptions about
people who look or speak differently to us?
As movements such as Black Lives Matter
work to expose the systemic racism in the
US and Europe, such questions are taking on
new and long overdue urgency. If we are to
overcome our biases, we need to understand
their neural and psychological roots.
Lasana Harris, a neuroscientist and
experimental psychologist at University
College London, is among those striving
for such an understanding. His research
focuses on how we think about other people’s
minds, known as social cognition, and more
specifically on how we perceive others.
Working with Susan Fiske at Princeton
University, his research on the brain
mechanisms underlying dehumanisation
has revealed the surprising ease with which
we can stop ourselves from having empathy
for the plights of others.
Such insights have informed his thinking
on racism, too. Harris views what many
people call unconscious bias as an inevitable
result of the associations we learn and the
way our brains react to perceived threats.
Rather than something we engage in
unconsciously, he argues that it is something
we know we are doing but struggle to control.
Here he tells New Scientist why societies
condition people to be prejudiced and what
the science says we can do about it.Daniel Cossins: Dehumanisation is a horrifying
word and yet your work suggests it is
something we all do. Why is that?
Lasana Harris: Firstly, if I want to do
something to another human being that
is something I don’t typically like doing to
human beings, then I’m going to need to not
think about their mind while I do it. The other
reason is that dehumanisation is a way to
regulate emotional responses, preventing us
from identifying with suffering and feeling
negative ourselves. Take homeless people, for
instance. If you have to feel empathic towards
every single person you see living on the
streets, you would be exhausted beforeThe roots
of racism
Our prejudices arise from
learned responses. That
means we can unlearn them,
neuroscientist Lasana Harris
tells Daniel Cossins
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