(c) flickr & B-A-R-T
狭心症や高血圧に使われる薬剤プロプラノロールが，人々が無意識に持っている人種的偏見を顕著に弱めるとの研究結果が発表された。研究では，被験者18人ずつにこの薬剤かプラセボ（偽薬）を投与し，人種的偏見を調べる標準的なテストを実施した。本人が意識している偏見に対しては，このような作用は見られなかったという。無意識の人種的偏見は自律神経が関与する無意識の恐怖反応に基づいており，プロプラノロールはこのような恐怖反応を抑制するため，今回認められた作用につながったと考えられている。（吉田素子）
Drug 'Reduces Implicit Racial Bias,' Study Suggests
Taking a heart disease medication can affect a person's subconscious attitudes towards race, a team of ethicists, psychiatrists and psychologists at Oxford University has found.
In a study published in Psychopharmacology, researchers gave 18 people the drug propranolol and 18 people a placebo and found that the propranolol group scored significantly lower on the Implicit Attitude Test into subconscious racial bias -- a standard test for testing subconscious racial attitudes. There was no significant difference in the groups' explicit attitudes to other races.
Propranolol is a beta-blocker used to treat heart disease that blocks activation in the peripheral 'autonomic' nervous system and in the area of the brain implicated in fear or emotional responses. The researchers believe propranolol reduced implicit racial basis because such bias is based on automatic, non-conscious fear responses, which propranolol blocks.
Sylvia Terbeck, lead author and experimental psychologist at Oxford University, said: 'Our results offer new evidence about the processes in the brain that shape implicit racial bias. Implicit racial bias can occur even in people with a sincere belief in equality. Given the key role that such implicit attitudes appear to play in discrimination against other ethnic groups, and the widespread use of propranolol for medical purposes, our findings are also of considerable ethical interest.’
She added: 'Many people with medical conditions are probably already on drugs which affect subconscious bias and more research is needed into how drugs which affect our nervous system affect our moral attitudes and practices.'
［単語和訳］
Implicit：潜在する Racial Bias：人種偏見
heart disease：心疾患 medication：薬剤 subconscious：無意識の，潜在意識の attitudes towards：～に対する態度（意識） ethicists：倫理学者 psychiatrists：精神科医 psychologists：心理学者
Psychopharmacology：精神薬理学（Psychopharmacologyは雑誌名） researchers：研究者 propranolol：プロプラノロール（高血圧，狭心症の治療薬） placebo：プラセボ significantly：有意に explicit：明確な
beta-blocker：ベータ遮断薬 activation：活性化 peripheral autonomic nervous system：末梢自律神経系 brain：脳 implicated in：～に関わる non-conscious：無意識的な
lead author：筆頭著者 experimental psychologist：実験心理学者 sincere belief：心からの信念 equality：平等 discrimination：差別 Given：～を考慮すると ethnic groups：民族 widespread：広範な ethical：倫理的な
