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| A mother’s wrinkled hand brushes the dust off the tombstone of her son killed during the Gwangju Democratic Movement on Tuesday at the city’s May 18 National Cemetery./Yonhap |
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| A woman weeps before a tombstone on Tuesday, one day ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Gwangju Democratic Movement at the city’s May 18 National Cemetery./Yonhap |
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| Chrysanthemums are offered in memory of the victims who were killed during the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Movement at the city’s May 18 National Cemetery on Tuesday./Yonhap | | | |
| racism can make you stupid
A Dartmouth College study reveals that interracial contact has a profound impact on a person's attention and performance. The researchers found new evidence using brain imaging that white individuals attempt to control racial bias when exposed to black individuals, and that this act of suppressing bias exhausts mental resources.
The study combines the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures brain activity, with other behavioral tests common to research in social and cognitive psychology to determine how white individuals respond to black individuals.
"We were surprised to find that brain activity in response to faces of black individuals predicted how research participants performed on cognitive tasks after actual interracial interactions," says Jennifer Richeson, the lead author on the paper. "To my knowledge, this is the first study to use brain imaging data in tandem with more standard behavioral data to test a social psychological theory. We found that white people with higher scores on the racial bias measure experienced greater neural activity in response to the photographs of black males," says Richeson. "This heightened activity was in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area in the front of the brain that has been linked to the control of thoughts and behaviors. Plus, these same individuals performed worse on the cognitive test after an actual interaction with a black male, suggesting that they may have been depleted of the necessary resources to complete the task."
This new study by Richeson provides striking evidence that supports the idea that interracial contact temporarily impairs cognitive task performance. These results suggest, according to the researchers, that harboring racial bias in an increasingly diverse society may be bad for one's cognitive performance." >from *Interracial Interactions are Cognitively Demanding*. november 17, 2003
related context
> The County of Los Angeles has requested that equipment vendors avoid using the industry term "Master/Slave" in product descriptions and labelling. november 26, 2003
> rejection affects human brain in same way as physical pain. november 10, 2003
> xenophobia may slow scientific progress. june 6, 2003
> the hacktivismo declaration: assertions of liberty in support of an uncensored internet. july 18, 2002
> shaping the network society: patterns for participation, action and change. may 13, 2002
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New study: Interracial interactions are cognitively demanding |
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Dartmouth College Office of Public Affairs • Press Release
Posted 11/17/03 • Contact Sue Knapp (603) 646-3661
Jennifer A. Richeson PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences (Photo by Joe Mehling '69)
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A new Dartmouth study reveals that interracial contact has a profound impact on a person's attention and performance. The researchers found new evidence using brain imaging that white individuals attempt to control racial bias when exposed to black individuals, and that this act of suppressing bias exhausts mental resources.
Published in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience on Nov. 16, the study combines the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures brain activity, with other behavioral tests common to research in social and cognitive psychology to determine how white individuals respond to black individuals.
"We were surprised to find that brain activity in response to faces of black individuals predicted how research participants performed on cognitive tasks after actual interracial interactions," says Jennifer Richeson, Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, the lead author on the paper. "To my knowledge, this is the first study to use brain imaging data in tandem with more standard behavioral data to test a social psychological theory."
Their findings suggest that harboring racial bias, however unintentional, makes negotiating interracial interactions more cognitively demanding. Similar to the depletion of a muscle after intensive exercise, the data suggest that the demands of the interracial interaction result in reduced capacity to engage in subsequent cognitive tasks, say the researchers.
For the study, thirty white individuals were measured for racial bias, which involved a computer test to record the ease with which individuals associate white American and black American racial groups with positive and negative concepts. Racial bias is measured by a pattern in which individuals take longer to associate the white Americans with negative concepts and black Americans with positive concepts. The study participants then interacted with either a black or a white individual, and afterward they were asked to complete an unrelated cognitive task in which they had to inhibit instinctual responses. In a separate fMRI session, these individuals were presented with photographs of unfamiliar black male and white male faces, and the activity of brain regions thought to be critical to cognitive control was assessed.
(left to right)Abigail A. Baird, Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Todd F. Heatherton, the Champion International Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the Center for Social Brain Sciences at Dartmouth, Sophie Trawalter, Ph.D. student in Psychological and Brain Sciences, Carrie Wyland, Ph.D. student in Psychological and Brain Sciences (Photo by Joe Mehling '69)
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"We found that white people with higher scores on the racial bias measure experienced greater neural activity in response to the photographs of black males," says Richeson. "This heightened activity was in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area in the front of the brain that has been linked to the control of thoughts and behaviors. Plus, these same individuals performed worse on the cognitive test after an actual interaction with a black male, suggesting that they may have been depleted of the necessary resources to complete the task."
According to Richeson, most people find it unacceptable to behave in prejudiced ways during interracial interactions and make an effort to avoid doing so, regardless of their level of racial bias. A different research project by Richeson and her colleagues suggested that these efforts could leave individuals temporarily depleted of the resources needed to perform optimally on certain cognitive tasks. This new study by Richeson provides striking evidence that supports the idea that interracial contact temporarily impairs cognitive task performance.
These results suggest, according to the researchers, that harboring racial bias in an increasingly diverse society may be bad for one's cognitive performance.
Other authors on the paper include Abigail A. Baird, Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences; Heather Gordon, Ph.D. student in Psychological and Brain Sciences; Todd F. Heatherton, the Champion International Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the Center for Social Brain Sciences at Dartmouth; Carrie Wyland, Ph.D. student in Psychological and Brain Sciences; Sophie Trawalter, Ph.D. student in Psychological and Brain Sciences; and J. Nicole Shelton, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Princeton University.
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College.
- By Sue Knapp | | | | |
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Mun Geun-young -- Thoughtful Beyond Her Years
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Mun Geun-young at 18 is quickly turning into the Queen of TV Advertising. Having just signed a one-year deal with Samsung Electronics as the exclusive face of its gAnycallh cell phone, she has also just finished shooting commercials with beverage maker Lotte Chilsung. As the two brands had previously used top stars Lee Hyo-lee and Jeon Ji-hyeon, there is talk of a generational change for commercial stars. Mun is getting around W500 million for a one-year contract, roughly the same treatment as top actresses such as Choi Ji-woo.
š Sadness
Her grandfather died recently. He was unification activist Ryu Nak-jin, a former communist partisan imprisoned for 30 years after he refused to ideologically convert. "About a week before he died, he said this to me. He said 'I'd never be as pretty as when I used to toddle around with bananas or bread hidden under my skirt.' He was in prison at the time, and forbidden private food deliveries. Frankly, I couldn't even remember that time very well. I cried a lot. It was the same with Eun-ju (actress Lee Eun-ju, who recently committed suicide), and I've learned there are many things in this world I don't know. I've learned that things you feel, think and see aren't everything."
Mun read the eulogy at Lee Eun-jufs funeral.
š The right way
She is renowned for contributing most of her earnings in entertainment to social and educational groups. She gave W300 million (US$293,000) to social welfare groups, and since last year has made four donations for a total of W100 million. She asked that the W50 million in donations made at her grandfather's funeral be spent on the unification movement, and the family sent the money to the Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification.
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China’s Growth places Strains on a Family’s Ties:
By Kathy Chen Apr 13, 2005
..."We don’t want to live with her because in a market economy, competition is very fierce and children have no extra time or energy to take care of their parents,” says Ms. Wang, 75. The Wangs say they like it at the institution, because there is more socializing. They note their daughter, a securities-company executive, has cut her once weekly visits to holidays and phone calls. “She has no time,” says Wang.
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1996 advisor report – National Defense University
The Aim of modern warfare is not merely to achieve military victory, but also a means of sheer intimidation, to inflict a deep psychological injury, to scare and terrorize potential rivals into submission. It is in effect, the practical application of the Wolfowitz Doctrine of global domination through force.
Describing shock and awe as “massively destructive strikes directly at the public will. Intimidation and compliance are the outputs we seek to obtain. The intent here is to impose a regime of shock and awe through delivery of instant, nearly incomprehensive levels of massive destruction directed at influencing society writ large. Through very selective, utterly brutal and ruthless, and rapid application of force to intimidate, the aim is to affect the will, perception, and understanding of the adversary. Without senses the adversary becomes impotent and entirely vulnerable.”
“The future is not a gift: it is an achievement. Every generation helps makes its own future. This is the essential challenge of the present.” - RFK | | | |
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