A new study finds that it is possible to make people less racist in their sleep, by reinforcing conditioning via association programmed while awake. How will we apply this knowledge?
We Can Deprogram Racists
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
10 Comments. Leave new
You can also make them more racist. Or strongly averse to vegetables. Let the reprogramming begin.
Hate is like a balloon.
Squeeze one side to make it smaller and watch another side get bigger.
It’s still just subliminal brainwashing. Your parents used to get the same basic results using either a switch or wide belt. After any initial reprogramming encounter, you always felt better when the belt or switch wasn’t used.
DanD
Not to worry, Ted. As I read the article (http://www.SCINCEMAG.ORG/content/348/6238/1013.full), it shows that the attained reduction in bias persists after one week in the event it is reinforced by replaying auditory clue under sleep. US cops – and those of other nations as well – will no doubt be easily be de-deprogrammed after one day at work….
Henri
As if there are only 500 racists in America?
This story does much more to sustain essentially universal American racism than to offer an accurate assessment/description and remedy for the problem.
FWIW: “the most racist areas in the US.”
tinyurl.com/qj3s3ye
Not racist, falco, just not yet «deprogrammed»….
Henri
I like key to that map, it refers to “below mean” and “above mean” but they’re missing “Really, really mean”
😉
There was another study recently which has evidently not been reproducible. Something to the effect that talking to a minority for a half-hour makes you less likely to be prejudiced against that minority.
So maybe it just needs to be longer than a half-hour. There is no doubt that people who associate with people different than themselves become more tolerant of those differences, that’s why city people are generally more accepting of minorities than those in cloistered rural communities. If you’ve never in your life met a gay person (knowingly) then it’s that much easier to hate the stereotypes. I run into that all the time, some shithead homophobe will go on & on about why he hates gays – but nothing he says has anything to do with gay people.
Even if I liked the idea of deprogramming – there’s no way I would put that kind of power in the hands of the government.