Researchers beta blockers are intended to significantly reduce racism

Help beta-blockers against racism?
Some beta-blockers are said to reduce xenophobia and promote tolerance towards strangers. Hard to believe, but the result of a high-level research by researchers at the University of Oxford's Center for Neuroethics. Usually, the drugs are prescribed for heart disease. The subjects were beta blocker with the drug propranolol simultaneously reduced their racist prejudices. However, the study design with only 36 heart patients as subjects was rather limited. Nevertheless, research should continue.

The scientists around Professor Julian Savulescu from the University of Oxford have examined the effects of the drug propranolol on the underlying thinking and behavior in 36 white subjects. They found that the drugs used for hypertension also brought a reduction in racist tendencies in the patients with it. In view of the spread of xenophobia and racism a very interesting discovery.

Racism exists when people are discriminated against and harassed on the basis of skin color, origin etc. (Image: grafikplusfoto / fotolia.com)

Test detects subliminal racism and xenophobia
Although the significance of the current study is relatively limited due to the small number of participants, the result is surprising. The 36 volunteers were divided into two groups, one receiving placebo and the other the propranolol beta-blocker. Two hours after taking the test subjects had to complete a standardized test, which was found on the basis of 140 images and questions subliminal racist behavior. For example, study participants should associate terms such as "friendly", "angry", "happy" or "sad" with the pictures shown.

If dark-skinned or black people were to be seen, the subjects of the control group were on average able to respond much more slowly to a positive opinion than the test persons from the propranolol group, according to the results of Professor Julian Savulescu and colleagues. In one third of the propranolol patients, according to the researchers, there were no signs of racist tendencies whatsoever, while in the placebo group all participants had subliminal xenophobic and racist traits.

Discriminatory behavior excludes violence and verbal abuse as well as e.g. heightened police surveillance. (Image: fpic / fotolia.com)

Beta blocker treatment for high blood pressure, heart disease and racism?
The beta-blocker propranolol has been known for decades and is mainly used in the treatment of hypertension. But the coronary heart disease, heart failure or tremor diseases are treated in conventional medicine more often with appropriate beta-blockers. Researchers at the University of Oxford's Center for Neuroethics have now identified another area for beta-blockers: the treatment of subconscious racism.

The current "results provide new clues about the processes in the brain that are responsible for the emergence of racist thoughts," said the German researcher of the Center for Neuroethics, Sylvia Terbeck. Study leader Professor Julian Savulescu added that while current research suggests "promising opportunities" in which subconscious "racism with the help of pills" could be changed. But propranolol is "not a miracle pill to cure people of racism. It must be weighed for ethical reasons how to deal with this possibility, "said Savulescu.

Beta blocker for more tolerance?
Oxford University researchers explain the observed effect with the antihypertensive and resting heart rate reducing effects of beta-blockers. Because in this way the subjects would be less anxious, which contributes to increased tolerance. However, a more detailed explanation for the observed reduction in racism by the beta-blockers could not provide the researchers so far. (sb, fp)