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Quote: from kidd rune at 4:07 pm on April 23, 2009

Interracial interactions are cognitively demanding
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/dc-iia111303.php" target="_top">http://http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/dc-iia111303.php

HANOVER, N.H. - 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.

Their findings suggest that harboring racial bias, however unintentional, makes negotiating interracial interactions more cognitively demanding.

Is the problem to stop racism so we will be more intelligent?
Can we stop racism?
http://www.golivewire.com/forums/peer-yeybybp-support-a.html" target="_top">http://http://www.golivewire.com/forums/peer-yeybybp-support-a.html
Evidence does suggest these "Racist" thoughts are really going through our heads, it's just that people are constantly told racism = bad and try to hide it and supress these beliefs - to no avail.
Discuss.

"exhausts mental resources"
^
What does this statement mean and how was it tested?
Was the conclusion of this study tested against non-interracial couples as a baseline?

"interracial contact has a profound impact on a person's attention and performance"
^
Lol. So, what we're saying is that people involved in interracial contact inspire worse intellectual performance and decreases attention span? What about a blind person touching someone of a different ethnic group? What about someone interacting with a different species, in general, like a dog? So, if one has negative dog connotations, one would deem it to be more "cognitive demanding"? What if I took a cloth and put it over the eyes of a white person and told them the person they were touching was black, even if they weren't, would the persons still display the same mental taxation?

"new evidence using brain imaging that white individuals attempt to control racial bias when exposed to black individuals,"
^
ALL white individuals?
Or certain white individuals?
What was the sample size?

"Their findings suggest that harboring racial bias, however unintentional, makes negotiating interracial interactions more cognitively demanding"
^
This would be based on every society, every economic bracket, etc? Even if places where negative stereotypes of blacks certainly aren't the norm? This would suggest that ALL whites are almost inherently wired to this "mental taxation", regardless of culture and/or that all whites harbour some preference for either what they perceive is white. Some whites harbor more negative feelings towards Jews, even if some jews are white, would they feel the same mental tiredness (I think this is overstated, there is no measure), even if someone is genetically white, if they ignoratly thought otherwise and had negative stereotypes?

This study would make sense if it wasn't just directed at blacks. If Asians/white couples aren't the same, then this is a psychological study, and not necessarily a purely scientific (in a certain sense) one.

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