Here's the one fact that's scientifically proven to make racists more tolerant

Tod Perry
Mon, 24 Feb 2025 23:12:43 +0000
How to change racism, Intolerance, Genetic similarities, Human genome project, Fighting racism, Human bias, Outgroups, European jounral of social psychology, Nationalism, Immigration, Racism

Imagine how wonderful the world would be if we could enter the minds of those who harbor racist attitudes and magically make them more tolerant. An interesting study out of New Zealand, published in 2024 in The European Journal of Social Psychology, may have found the trick to do just that. A new research paper says that you can change people’s attitudes by showing how similar they are to the people they are prejudiced against.

The researchers wanted to learn more about changing people’s prejudiced ideas due to the rise in populist nationalism worldwide, especially in the developed world. “What you’re seeing is parties who are pushing back against the last 20 years of European history, against the Green New Deal, against globalization,” Mabel Berezin, the Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences in Sociology (A&S) and director of the Institute for European Studies, said. “They want to reinvent the post-war period.” These nationalist sentiments have created exclusionary politics where minority groups and immigrants have come under fire.

A human gene.via Canva/Photos

How genetically similar are humans?

Going into the experiment, the researchers noted that the average person believes that races share about 68% of the same genes. This leads some to think their differences are primarily genetic, which they can use to rationalize their intolerance. However, the truth couldn’t be more different. According to the Human Genome Project, all humans, regardless of their ethnic background, share 99.9% of the same genetic makeup. The researchers believed that if people were better educated on how similar they are to one another, they’d be a lot less likely to be biased against them.

How do you change people’s racist beliefs?

The researchers took two different groups of people and tested their attitudes toward race and ethnicity before showing them one of two videos. The first was an 11-minute video by the Human Genome Project about how humans are remarkably genetically similar. The other group watched a video about how learning music affects a child’s brain.

A couple walking down the beachvia Canva/Photos

The results across all tests found that those who watched the 11-minute video on genetic similarities significantly improved their attitudes toward people from other countries. The research shows that many are less likely to see people as different when they are educated about their similarities. This is especially true if they hold to the incorrect belief that other races share only 68% of the same genetic makeup.

This study isn’t going to improve race relations overnight, but in a world where it can be difficult for people to move on from incorrect beliefs, it provides a solid playbook for challenging prejudice. The researchers hope their results can also help people change how intolerant people view those in an outgroup for reasons beyond race. Can pointing out our collective genetic similarities shift their biased views on those with a different religion, political philosophy, or sexual orientation? The good news is that there is hope that with a little bit of education, we can change the minds and soften the hearts of those who have racist beliefs.