Press reports about a pill that cures racism will have no doubt fired the imagination of egalitarians across the Western world, from the Kapital-thumping theologian burrowed in the catacombs of university humanities departments to the orangutanaceous brick-throwing Marxist of balaclava and combat boots.
It appears that Propranolol, a drug normally prescribed for heart disease, has the unexpected side effect of suppressing implicit racial attitudes. Tests showed that subjects on the pill exhibited lower levels of subconsciously cautious attitudes towards members of another race than subjects on a placebo.
According to the Press Association report,
Experimental psychologist Dr Sylvia Terbeck, from Oxford University, who led the study published in the journal Psychopharmacology, said: “Our results offer new evidence about the processes in the brain that shape implicit racial bias.
“Implicit racial bias can occur even in people with a sincere belief in equality. Given the key role that such implicit attitudes appear to play in discrimination against other ethnic groups, and the widespread use of propranolol for medical purposes, our findings are also of considerable ethical interest.”
Two groups of 18 participants took part in the study. Each volunteer was asked to undertake a “racial Implicit Association Test” (IAT) one to two hours after taking propranolol or the placebo.
