New research involving a psychologist from the University of York has
revealed for the first time that both belief in God and prejudice
towards immigrants can be reduced by directing magnetic energy into the
brain.
Dr Keise Izuma collaborated with a team from the University of
California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to carry out an innovative experiment
using transcranial magnetic stimulation, a safe way of temporarily
shutting down specific regions of the brain.
The researchers targeted the posterior medial frontal cortex, a part
of the brain located near the surface and roughly a few inches up from
the forehead that is associated with detecting problems and triggering
responses that address them.
In the study, half of the participants received a low-level “sham”
procedure that did not affect their brains, and half received enough
energy to lower activity in the target brain area. Next, all of the
participants were first asked to think about death, and then were asked
questions about their religious beliefs and their feelings about
immigrants.
The findings, published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective
Neuroscience, reveal that people in whom the targeted brain region was
temporarily shut down reported 32.8% less belief in God, angels, or
heaven. They were also 28.5% more positive in their feelings toward an
immigrant who criticised their country.
Dr Izuma, from the University’s Department of Psychology, said:
“People often turn to ideology when they are confronted by problems. We
wanted to find out whether a brain region that is linked with solving
concrete problems, like deciding how to move one’s body to overcome an
obstacle, is also involved in solving abstract problems addressed by
ideology.”
This interest in the brain basis of ideology led the team to focus on religion and nationalism.
Dr Izuma added: “We decided to remind people of death because
previous research has shown that people turn to religion for comfort in
the face of death. As expected, we found that when we experimentally
turned down the posterior medial frontal cortex, people were less
inclined to reach for comforting religious ideas despite having been
reminded of death.”
The investigators asked participants to respond to both negative and
positive emotional aspects of religion and of nationalism. Specifically, they rated belief in the Devil, demons, and Hell, in
addition to God, angels, and heaven. All potential participants were
pre-screened to make sure that they held religious convictions before
beginning the experiment. .
With regard to nationalistic ideology, the participants read two
essays ostensibly written by recent immigrants. One essay was extremely
complimentary toward the United States, and the other essay was
extremely critical.
The investigators found that the magnetic stimulation had the greatest effect on reactions to the critical author.
“We think that hearing criticisms of your group’s values, perhaps
especially from a person you perceive as an outsider, is processed as an
ideological sort of threat,” said Dr Izuma.
“One way to respond to such threats is to ‘double down’ on your group
values, increasing your investment in them, and reacting more
negatively to the critic,” he continued.
“When we disrupted the brain region that usually helps detect and
respond to threats, we saw a less negative, less ideologically motivated
reaction to the critical author and his opinions.”
Dr Colin Holbrook, from UCLA and the lead author of the paper, added:
“These findings are very striking, and consistent with the idea that
brain mechanisms that evolved for relatively basic threat-response
functions are repurposed to also produce ideological reactions. However, more research is needed to understand exactly how and why
religious beliefs and ethnocentric attitudes were reduced in this
experiment.”
The scientists say that whether we’re trying to clamber over a fallen
tree that we find in our path, find solace in religion, or resolve
issues related to immigration, our brains are using the same basic
mental machinery.
This kind of research is so critical. I hope it’s replicated and the strength of the effect is substantially demonstrated before we draw conclusions about it, but it’s still a heavy phenomena to reflect on.
It’s also something critical to forecast about. What does a future look like in which targeted transcranial magnetic stimulation could provide a method for social influence?
