• Question: Do you believe, psychologically, that there are factors that make people more susceptible to extremism/racism ?

    Asked by mashiyath to Ben, Sam, Rose on 22 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Ben Kenward

      Ben Kenward answered on 22 Jun 2017:

      There are all kinds of things that can make people more susceptible, but they would all boil down to genetics and environment. The idea that there is genetic susceptibility is fairly recent but it makes a lot of sense because it has been well know for a while that there is genetic inheritance of personality, and that personality predicts what psychologists call Right Wing Authoritarianism (NWA), which covers racism amongst other things. I just found an article that looks at patterns of RWA in families and finds that there is indeed a genetic link. Link here but I’m NOT expecting you to read it – it’s more that when we scientists claim something on the basis of a study we found, we have a strong habit to link to the study!

      https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304658653_The_Structure_and_Sources_of_Right-Wing_Authoritarianism_and_Social_Dominance_Orientation

      However, I can almost guarantee that environment – everything that you experience – is more important. A major source of racism is certainly that there are racist ideas around in society. For example, slavery lasted so long in America simply because people were taught in school that whites were just better than blacks.

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