ebook img

The Social Neuroscience of Intergroup Relations:: Prejudice, can we cure it? PDF

98 Pages·2016·1.308 MB·English
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview The Social Neuroscience of Intergroup Relations:: Prejudice, can we cure it?

Sylvia Terbeck The Social Neuroscience of Intergroup Relations: Prejudice, can we cure it? The Social Neuroscience of Intergroup Relations: Prejudice, can we cure it? Image retrieved from: h ttps://pixabay.com/ (All images and videos on Pixabay are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty free for anything you like, even in commercial applications. Attribution is not required) Sylvia Terbeck The Social Neuroscience of Intergroup Relations: Prejudice, can we cure it? Sylvia Terbeck School of Psychology Plymouth University School of Psychology Plymouth , UK ISBN 978-3-319-46336-0 ISBN 978-3-319-46338-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-46338-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016955542 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 T his work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. T he use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. T he publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland This book is dedicated to Dr Laurence Paul Chesterman. Foreword I n the Oxford English Dictionary, the word ‘prejudice’ is defi ned as ‘preconceived opinion not based on reason or actual experience’. However, the Dictionary goes on to note that in more recent times, the notion of prejudice specifi cally depicts ‘unrea- soned dislike, hostility, or antagonism towards, or discrimination against, a race, sex, or other class of people’. Considering the staggering amount of global violence and suffering apparently based on ethnic, religious, and political differences, there could hardly be a more important topic but what is the role for neuroscience? How could a brain-based approach help us understand and deal with this overwhelming problem, which seems self-evidently a matter for political and sociocultural transformation? Sylvia Terbeck’s fascinating book does not side step this challenge but explains with great clarity and accessibility how the brain ultimately is the basis of all behav- iour and that a scientifi c understanding of prejudice in no way neglects the political and philosophical dimensions of this critical problem. Indeed neuroscience has been able to make substantial progress in uncovering the implicit cognitive biases and emotional responses and underpinning neural circuitry that mechanistically drive the psychological processes involved in the intergroup behaviours – all too often expressed as prejudice of various kinds. One of the most powerful aspects of science is its potential to predict and control aspects of the natural world, which in the context of neuroscience includes human behaviour. Could an appropriate drug therefore be helpful in combating prejudice? Here Sylvia’s discussion is particularly illuminating and well-informed, based as it is on some fascinating studies that she personally conducted with a widely used drug called propranolol, which apparently has the remarkable ability to decrease a laboratory measure of implicit prejudice. However, Sylvia’s reservations about the use of drugs to produce moral (or any other kind of) ‘enhancement’ are convincing and highly topical. vii viii Foreword I recommend this book to anyone wishing to understand how modern neurosci- ence can be applied to the analysis of fundamental human behaviours, even those that have caused strife and misery throughout recorded history. It takes a very accomplished author to integrate in a readily comprehensible way, the neuroscience approach with sociological, philosophical and political insights and this is what Sylvia has achieved. Her book deserves to be widely read. University of Oxford Phil Cowen Oxford, UK Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank Dr Laurence Paul Chesterman for his invaluable help. I would like to thank Prof Phil Cowen for his excellent foreword, but also for being my supervisor at Oxford University; the work could have not been completed with- out him. I would also like to thank my fi rst supervisor Prof Miles Hewstone, also Dr Guy Kahane, as well as Prof Julian Savulescu. I would have never thought about moral enhancement – the topic Prof Julian Savulescu developed – otherwise. Thank you also to Dr Sarah McTavish for your support and all members of the Oxford Centre for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Very valuable comments and editing were conducted by my best friend Dr Ann Dowker; thank you. Also thank you to my friend Uma Shahani, who made great comments and suggestions. Thank you to Dr Bill Simpson, for discussing the book with me. F urthermore, many thanks to the 2015/2016 class of undergraduate social psy- chology students from Plymouth University for comments, language editing, and ideas, especially to Ella Dowden, Tom Harlow, Lillian Hawkins, Georgia Lewis, Hana Tomaskova, Catherine Senior, Shannon Jackson, David Bennett, Fatin Soufi eh, Abbie Cunningham, Shauna Barratt, Molly Russell, Jessica Haigh, Dean Moreton, Nicole Keslake, Maria Presley, Amie Barlow, and Nicole Gayler. ix Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 1.1 What Is Happening in the Brain of Such a Person? ........................... 3 References ................................................................................................... 7 2 The Foundations of Prejudice and Discrimination ................................ 9 References ................................................................................................... 28 3 The Neuroscience of Prejudice ................................................................. 29 3.1 Neuroscience Research of Intergroup Relations ................................ 37 3.2 Basics of Psychopharmacology ......................................................... 46 References ................................................................................................... 48 4 Psychopharmacology and Prejudice ....................................................... 51 References ................................................................................................... 67 5 Neuroethics of Social Enhancement ........................................................ 69 5.1 What Is So Bad or Different About Drugs? ....................................... 75 References ................................................................................................... 82 6 What Should Be Done? ............................................................................. 85 6.1 Should We Cure Prejudice? ............................................................... 85 6.2 What Is Equality? What Do We Want? .............................................. 89 References ................................................................................................... 92 xi

See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.