The findings of a study conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto suggest that knowledge of the science behind the human body might be able to help defeat racism. The study authors assert that educating individuals about our genetic similarities — specifically, the fact that humans are 99.9 percent genetically similar — can do a lot to diminish the meaning we attach to physiological differences.
Behind the research was the idea that people often mistakenly assume that superficial ethnic characteristics are a reliable sign of significant genetic difference. The result: Study participants who were more informed of genetic overlap between strangers were less likely to racially profile.
According to the researchers, the results suggest that people's beliefs about genetic variation are malleable. Education, therefore, could be a useful target for anti-prejudice interventions. "People without a strong motivation for prejudice — and even those with professed egalitarian ideals — frequently display signs of racial stereotyping," they concluded. "We suggest that people with egalitarian ideals may still exhibit stereotyping at least partly because they harbor particular assumptions about genetic variation."
We can all be guilty of focusing too much on identifying, criticizing and being frustrated by racism, and not enough figuring out how to do away with it. This is a step in the right direction. And while it strikes us as surprising that a little awareness of the biological version of "we all have more in common than we think" could do so much to alter long-held beliefs about race, if it works as well as the researchers suggest (at least as one piece of the puzzle), we're all for it.
Read more at the British Psychological Society.
In other news: John Edwards Indicted.
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