How can we fix unconscious racism? | Nathalia Gjersoe

Racial prejudice has its roots in children's natural drive to carve the world up into categories. Can research do anything to fix this?

Racist stereotypes, at their root, come from quite a fundamental learning mechanism. Humans are able to learn and adapt so quickly because they are excellent at making generalisations about the world based on very limited experience. Take dogs, for example - a toddler might reasonably conclude after meeting just two or three that all dogs are furry, bark and have tails that should be treated with some caution.

On the whole, stereotypes are often right - dogs do normally bark and wag their tails. The difficulty arises when this learning mechanism is applied to groups of people. Race is an easy mental category to fit people into because skin colour is a salient visual feature.