Drug against racism

Curious study: A pill should act against racism and xenophobia

12.03.2012

The side effects of special beta-blockers promote tolerance and avoid racism. This is the finding of researchers from the University of Oxford's Center for Neuroethics. Cardiac patients who take beta-blockers with propranolol are therefore simultaneously cured of racism. However, the study results should be viewed with caution in a group of 36 subjects.

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. It is possible that beta-blockers should be given as a standard to make our society more tolerant. However, the preparations have numerous other side effects, so that a comprehensive use in the population is out of the question.

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 like the concepts shown in terms of terms „friendly“, „angry“, „happy“ or „Sad“ assign. 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.

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. Also deliver the current „Results 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. The study director Professor Julian Savulescu added that although the current research results „promising possibilities“ promised, among those subconscious „Racism with the help of pills“ could be changed. But propranolol was „no miracle pill to cure people of racism. It must be weighed for ethical reasons how to handle this possibility“, stressed 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. Regardless of why a corresponding effect occurs, the media in Germany are now more or less serious about the possible use of beta-blockers in right-wing extremists to overcome their tendency to xenophobia. The so-called Zwickauer terror cell might never have existed if the three perpetrators had just received a few beta-blockers from their doctor in good time. Also, the subliminal xenophobia test may have been conducted at school on a regular basis before prompting treatment of racists with beta-blockers, further responding to Oxford research findings. Why not beta-blockers for all? After all, more tolerance can never hurt, and the few side effects such as asthma attacks, circulatory disorders or circulatory collapses can also be controlled by medicine. (Fp)

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Picture credits: Dieter Schütz