The following article by Richard Metzger discussing a recent study linking Propranolol to reduced racial bias (by one measure), opens up a fascinating topic – how do mind and body interact? Can they even be separated (I don't think so) and how are our thoughts influenced by our biology?
Studies have shown that beta blockers*, used to lower blood pressure, are also effective in treating anxiety disorders. They have long been used for countering performance anxiety. "The physiological symptoms of the fight/flight response associated with performance anxiety and panic (pounding heart, cold/clammy hands, increased respiration, sweating, etc.) are significantly reduced, thus enabling anxious individuals to concentrate on the task at hand." (Beta Blockers in Anxiety)
Note: According to one article, "the ability of beta blockers to help anxiety seems related only to their blockade of beta receptors outside of the brain. Beta blockers will not help the emotional symptoms of stage fright (for example, sleep problems or negative inner voices)." I did not search medical journals on this.
But I do know the effect of beta-blockers for performance anxiety is quite pleasant. You relax but there's no (apparent) loss of cognition; in fact, thinking is enhanced because the distracting symptoms of nervousness and fear (racing heart, chattering teeth, shaking) are gone, freeing your mind to think more clearly. What's more, you can repeat the effect WITHOUT the drug after teaching yourself to mimic the "feeling" of the pill.
So is racism so connected with fear that by chemically reducing the physical symptoms of fear, the mental consequences – distrust, prejudice – are lessened as well?
Referring to the study cited by Richard, Dr Chris Chambers warned, "And we can’t rule out the possibility that the effects were due to the drug incidentally reducing heart rate. So although interesting, in my view these preliminary results are a long way from suggesting that propranolol specifically influences racial attitudes.” It wouldn't have occurred to me to "rule out the possibility that the effects were due to" the drug's known action on the sympathetic nervous system.
I think the logical (not proven) conclusion is that Propranolol was NOT directly changing racial attitudes at all, but the opposite – that the drug WAS reducing the physiological symptoms of fear, and that indirectly and subtly influenced racial attitudes.
~ Ilene
BRAVE NEW WORLD: HEART DISEASE PILL MITIGATES RACISM???
Courtesy of Richard Metzger at Dangerous Minds
Get your head around this: Test subjects given the heart disease medication, Propranolol, a beta blocker, were found to score lower on a test of “implicit” racist prejudices and fears. From the Telegraph:
Scientists believe the discovery can be explained by the fact that racism is fundamentally founded on fear.
Propranolol acts both on nerve circuits that govern automatic functions such as heart rate, and the part of the brain involved in fear and emotional responses. The drug is also used to treat anxiety and panic.
Experimental psychologist Dr Sylvia Terbeck, from Oxford University, who led the study published in the journal Psychopharmacology, said: “Our results offer new evidence about the processes in the brain that shape implicit racial bias.
“Implicit racial bias can occur even in people with a sincere belief in equality. Given the key role that such implicit attitudes appear to play in discrimination against other ethnic groups, and the widespread use of propranolol for medical purposes, our findings are also of considerable ethical interest.”
I’d say so!
Despite the study’s small size and limitations, the researchers believe it raises important ethical and philosophical questions.
Co-author Professor Julian Savulescu, from Oxford University’s Faculty of Philosophy, said: “Such research raises the tantalising possibility that our unconscious racial attitudes could be modulated using drugs, a possibility that requires careful ethical analysis. “Biological research aiming to make people morally better has a dark history. And propranolol is not a pill to cure racism. But given that many people are already using drugs like propranolol which have ‘moral’ side effects, we at least need to better understand what these effects are.”
But Dr Chris Chambers, from the University of Cardiff’s School of Psychology, said the results should be viewed with “extreme caution”. He said: “We don’t know whether the drug influenced racial attitudes only or whether it altered implicit brain systems more generally.
And we can’t rule out the possibility that the effects were due to the drug incidentally reducing heart rate. So although interesting, in my view these preliminary results are a long way from suggesting that propranolol specifically influences racial attitudes.”
Fascinating stuff, although my first thought was wondering how you’d get an Archie Bunker-type (or a Telegraph reader) to agree to take it?
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*Beta-blockers (from Wiki): "Beta blockers (sometimes written as β-blockers) or beta-adrenergic blocking agents, beta-adrenergic antagonists, beta-adrenoreceptor antagonists or beta antagonists, are a class of drugs used for various indications. They are particularly for the management of cardiac arrhythmias, cardioprotection after myocardial infarction (heart attack), and hypertension. As beta adrenergic receptor antagonists, they diminish the effects of epinephrine (adrenaline) and other stress hormones. In 1958 the first beta blocker, dichloroisoproterenol, was synthesised by Eli Lilly Laboratories, but it was Sir James W. Black in 1962, who found the first clinically significant use of beta blockers with propranolol and pronethalol; it revolutionized the medical management of angina pectoris[5] and is considered by many to be one of the most important contributions to clinical medicine and pharmacology of the 20th century.
Beta blockers block the action of endogenous catecholamines epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) in particular, on β-adrenergic receptors, part of the sympathetic nervous system which mediates the "fight or flight" response. There are three known types of beta receptor, designated β1, β2 and β3 receptors. β1-adrenergic receptors are located mainly in the heart and in the kidneys. β2-adrenergic receptors are located mainly in the lungs, gastrointestinal tract, liver, uterus, vascular smooth muscle, and skeletal muscle. β3-adrenergic receptors are located in fat cells."
