[Ammi]

A beta-blocker drug which is commonly prescribed to treat chest pains and lower heart rates has been found to have an unusual side-effect: it combats racism.

The Telegraph reports that that drug, called propranolol, acts on the nerve circuits that govern automatic functions such as heart rate, as well as the part of the brain involved in fear and emotional responses.

The unexpected 'moral' side-effects of taking the drug came to light when psychologists at Oxford University studied two groups of 18 people, who were asked to take a 'racial Implicit Association Test' (IAT) soon after taking propranolol or a placebo.

The test involved categorising positive and negative words and pictures of black and white people on a computer screen.

The Daily Mail reports that researchers measured the time taken to carry out the tasks and found that it took placebo volunteers longer to associate a black face with a positive word that it took to link a white face with a positive word.

This was taken as proof that they were being racist on a subconscious level.

The time lag disappeared among those participants who had taken the beta-blocker and researchers found that more than a third of these participants had a 'negative' IAT score, meaning that they were biased towards being non-racist at a subconscious level. This was not seen in any member of the placebo group.

The drug was not found to have any effect on explicit prejudice or a racial, sexual or religious nature, only on subconscious feelings that most people might not be aware of.

Experimental psychologist Dr Sylvia Terbeck told The Telegraph: "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 of considerable ethical interest."

Researchers believe that their results can be explained by the fact that racism is founded on fear as the drug is also used to treat anxiety and panic.

Co-author of the study, Professor Julian Savulescu from Oxford University's Faculty of Philosopy, told the Daily Mail: "Such research raises the tantalising possibility that our unconscious racial attitudes could be modulated using drugs, a possibility that requires careful ethical analysis.

"Biological research aiming to make people morally better has a dark history. And propranolol is not a pill to cure racism. But given that many people are already using drugs like propranolol which have 'moral' side effects, we at least need to better understand what these effects are."