What this 'racism is hardwired' story says about the Daily Mail {uk - misuse of science}

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/27/what-racism-hardwired-headline-daily-mail


A man walks past graffiti in support of Enoch Powell. Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis

The Daily Mail has bad news for "right-thinking" people everywhere: Racism is "hardwired" into the human brain. Even well-meaning progressives "make unconscious decisions based on a person's race". It is inescapable.

The one small hitch in this story is adverted to in that shopworn phrase "scientists say". A discordant note should always sound in the reader's mind when a journalist opens an article with this assurance. For, in point of fact, scientists don't say.

The basis of the Mail's claim is an article published yesterday in the journal Nature, on the neuroscience of race. The article does not involve new laboratory research, but is rather a review of existing studies. These studies had used magnetic resonance imaging to show the regions of the brain implicated in the perception of race and ethnicity. The review shows that a network of brain regions, centred on the amygdala, are involved.

Nowhere in the article, or in the accompanying interview with the lead scientist Dr Elizabeth Phelps, is there any support given to the claim that racism is "hardwired" into the human brain. Noticeably, the Mail does not quote any statement in support of this claim. The sole quotations from the researchers used by the newspaper are taken from the conclusion to the review. These do support the existence of "unconscious" racial bias, of the sort which may affect important matters such as legal decisions. But they do not support the claim that racism is hardwired.

[joeybee12]

1. Isn't the Mail one of Murdoch's?

If the answer is yes, no further explanation needed.

[seabeyond]

2. the new cult like fad that has been used to justify misogyny, now seems to be out to embrace racism.

misuse of science

always.