How God Changes Your Brain - Andrew Newberg, M. D_ [67]
We live in a pluralistic society, and this is enough to trigger a biological response toward prejudice, but research has shown that those who consciously strive toward embracing pluralism and a diversity of beliefs tend to treat others with greater equality, fairness, and generosity.32 In fact, many studies have demonstrated that the more friendly contact you have with members of different religious, cultural, ethnic, and racial groups, the less prejudice you will harbor in your brain.33
Research has also shown that when people embrace egalitarian beliefs, they become less authoritarian in behavior.34 It even appears that human beings have a biological and evolutionary drive toward creating equality between competing groups and individuals,35 and when equality is established, cooperation improves.36 This, indeed, provides a foundation of hope when dealing with the overwhelming number of conflicts that currently involve many nations throughout the world.
AN “US VERSUS THEM” MENTALITY
Although we can train ourselves to be less prejudiced and more accepting of others, we will still harbor elements of an exclusivist mentality deep within our brain, dismissing the relevance of other people's beliefs. In fact, we are all biased toward perceiving our own beliefs as true, even when the evidence clearly contradicts our points of view. For example, in a study assessing how religious and nonreligious students evaluate the beliefs of the other group, both groups tended to see the other side as illogical, yet failed to see the illogic in their own perspectives and beliefs.37 In other words, our minds are always biased toward seeing evidence that only supports our point of view. To put it another way, our brain has a preference for consistency, and this is what helps us to maintain our systems of belief.
Our brain automatically places objects and people into separate, distinguishable groups, and then we select a preference for one group over the other. We will root for our favorite baseball team and disparage the challenging team, and we will tend to distrust whatever the opposing political party says. The same holds true for anyone we perceive as being a member of a “different” group—be it religious, political, or ethnic—and when we do this, the tendency is to treat the other group unfairly. As many studies have confirmed, the “in” group will always orchestrate scenarios that are less than favorable for any “out” group.38 In-group morality is also associated with intergroup conflict.39
An “us versus them” mentality exists even when the division is arbitrarily assigned in an experiment or game. When individuals were randomly placed into different groups, they felt stronger about their own group and tended to feel negatively about other groups, even when issues of religion, sexual identity, and culture were factored out.40 In other words, simply being a part of a group results in feelings of ill will toward others, and this evokes the desire to isolate oneself from them.
But there is a simple solution. As Princeton University professor Susan Fiske explains, if you want to decrease your natural tendency toward prejudice and out-group bias, don't “categorize” yourself. People, she states, can get beyond—and even prevent—“their automatic use of category-driven impression formation and decision making.”41 You'll do your brain, and society, a lot of good if you don't identify yourself as a Christian, Muslim, Jew, or atheist. Even labels like Democrat,