Racism Really Does Make You Stupid

(HealthScoutNews) -- People who are racist may suffer a temporary lapse in mental capacity after interacting with people who are members of a racial minority.

Researchers from Princeton University and Dartmouth College found that white people with a high degree of racial basis experienced a decrease in "executive function" after spending time talking with black people. Their research appears in the May issue of Psychological Science.

Executive function is a key element of thought that involves the ability to fix attention on certain, high-level mental tasks.

The study included 59 white college students. They were given a test to assess the degree of racial bias in their thinking. The students then spent time talking with either a black or a white person and afterwards were given a test that measured their ability to concentrate on a challenging mental task.

The more racially biased the students were, the worse they did on the mental task after speaking with a black person. But racially biased students who spoke with a white person, even if they discussed racially sensitive issues, had no decline in mental function.

"When you have to control your behavior, it takes a lot of energy. And if you expend energy in a social interaction, then you don't have so much left over to do something else," researcher Nicole Shelton says in a news release.

More information

Here's advice on how to talk to your kids about racism.

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