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Genetic Disorder Removes Racial Bias and Social Fear

Posted by samzenpus on from the all-you-need-is-love-and-different-genes dept.

People who suffer from a rare genetic disorder called Williams Syndrome have a complete lack of social fear. They experience no anxiety or concerns about meeting new people or being put into any social situation, and a new study by Andreia Santos suggests that they also don't have any racial bias. From the article: "Typically, children start overtly gravitating towards their own ethnic groups from the tender age of three. Groups of people from all over the globe and all sorts of cultures show these biases. Even autistic children, who can have severe difficulties with social relationships, show signs of racial stereotypes. But Santos says that the Williams syndrome kids are the first group of humans devoid of such racial bias, although, as we’ll see, not everyone agrees."

20 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. Friendly people by sopssa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    TFA notes this

    Santos suggests that children with Williams syndrome don’t develop the same biases that their peers do, because they don’t experience social fear. Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, who led the study, says, “There are hyper-social, very empathetic, very friendly, and do not get danger signals.” And because they’ll freely interact with anyone, they are less likely to cultivate a preference for people of their own ethnic groups. Alternatively, it could be that because they don’t fall prey to stereotypes, they’re more likely to socialise with everyone.

    I think that's the cause, not because theres some difference in genes that makes you lose racial bias. They're friendly people and open to anyone. Rasism comes from not being open and friendly to people you think are somehow different.

    But their complete lack of social fear is also a bad thing because not everyone are so and they might get hurt because of it. It's better than the other way more with geeky people though - I had trouble speaking to people or be open with them and it obviously got in the way of my relationships too. Somehow that changed when I was put in to social situations (with the help of beer) and got myself in to an relationship. Yes, one girl actually fell in love with me and because I acted like an open and social guy I kind of had to continue doing it. It took its time but it made an everlasting change to me, and now I can talk about things openly, be social and be friendly to people.

    1. Re:Friendly people by MozeeToby · · Score: 5, Informative

      Maybe you don't understand. Toddlers have racial biases. Even babies just a few months old will prefer to look at a picture of someone with the same skin color as them. It's built into the way our brain works. These kids don't have that at any age. They also don't have the subconscious biases that 99% of people have, even the people that are nice to everyone and would never say, do, or even think a racist thought.

    2. Re:Friendly people by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Informative

      Though, interestingly, the study also tested for sex-linked biases, on which the disorder has no effect.

    3. Re:Friendly people by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "Birds of a feather flock together"

      It's not only humans that show preference, it's hard-wired into every living thing with a brain. Fortunately for us, our brains are so developed that we can override this once vital but now irrelevant feature. Well at least some of us can.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    4. Re:Friendly people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Birds of a feather flock together"

      It's not only humans that show preference, it's hard-wired into every living thing with a brain. Fortunately for us, our brains are so developed that we can override this once vital but now irrelevant feature. Well at least some of us can.

      You sound like a kike.

    5. Re:Friendly people by david_thornley · · Score: 4, Interesting

      How do babies a few months old know what their skin color is? At that age, they're probably waving their hands and arms in front of their faces, but haven't figured out they're part of them. Could it be that they react to their parents' skin color rather than their own?

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  2. Why such terms? by trifish · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You call it a "genetic disorder", I call it the "evolution".

    1. Re:Why such terms? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Probably because of all its serious side effects, many of them rather less charming?

      These aren't just "Normal people; but they love everybody and stuff", they suffer from a variety of serious cognitive deficiencies and health problems.

    2. Re:Why such terms? by netsavior · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My daughter has Williams Syndrome. She is 3 and has monthly EKGs, is on a calorie intense diet (because of her extremely small and underweight size). She also has severe dental problems.
      all that being said, she has perfect pitch (can emulate any sound (within reason) she wants to even without hearing it right before (she can pull sounds up from long term memory). She also has a measurably more sensitive sense of hearing (i.e. you can whisper in the other room and she will hear it). She is different, and markedly so, but I cannot say that this is the direction in which all human evolution will flow.

      This is a spontaneous mutation meaning it is not necessarily passed down from parents, although people with WS are 50% likely to pass it on to each child. It is a partial genetic deletion.

      People with WS tend to have Elvish or Pixie features. The disorder was formerly referred to as Pixieism, and is thought (quite convincingly) to be the origin of that type of folklore: Whimsical people who are extremely talented in music, are not socially afraid of anyone and tend to have a "cocktail party personality" in that they can speak to you for hours and not actually get into an "in-depth" conversation.

      My daughter may not have racial bias, but she also does not have stranger-danger... would gladly hug the nice homeless man who is yelling at god and drinking a paper bag.

    3. Re:Why such terms? by netsavior · · Score: 4, Informative

      Williams Syndrome usually comes with a below average IQ, ALWAYS comes with connective tissue issues, including moderate to severe heart disease. It almost always comes with a reduced size, and different than "normal" facial features.

      oh yeah and there is some social stuff too :P

    4. Re:Why such terms? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Informative

      This has the messy details. Highlights include:

      "The majority of individuals with Williams syndrome have some type of heart or blood vessel problem. Typically, there is narrowing in the aorta (producing supravalvular aortic stenos is SVAS), or narrowing in the pulmonary arteries. There is a broad range in the degree of narrowing, ranging from trivial to severe (requiring surgical correction of the defect). Since there is an increased risk for development of blood vessel narrowing or high blood pressure over time, periodic monitoring of cardiac status is necessary. "

      "Most people with Williams syndrome have some degree of intellectual handicap. Young children with Williams syndrome often experience developmental delays; milestones such as walking, talking and toilet training are often achieved somewhat later than is considered normal. Distractibility is a common problem in mid-childhood, which appears to get better as the children get older. Older children and adults with Williams syndrome often demonstrate intellectual "strengths and weaknesses." There are some intellectual areas (such as speech, long term memory, and social skills) in which performance is quite strong, while other intellectual areas (such as fine motor and spatial relations) are significantly deficient."

      There are a number of other potentially nasty medical issues, as well as the personality features that make the sydrome interesting to researchers in human behavior, psychology, and neurology.

      As far as I know, the stuff specifically pertaining to "Racial bias" is completely harmless, and it is pretty fascinating that such a dramatic psychological effect can be caused by a single mutation. The "Lack of social fear" stuff isn't directly harmful; but I'm sure that "developmentally disabled child who loves and trusts everybody, and doesn't recognize social danger signals" goes badly from time to time.

      However, its the cardiac, circulatory, and cognitive issues that really make this one a serious disorder.

    5. Re:Why such terms? by CannonballHead · · Score: 3, Insightful

      wouldn't have exactly been advantageous during the time of the Huns, but today she'd probably fit in all right and would be a great person to know and be around.

      Ah ... because ... people are morally better now? Girls no longer get kidnapped, raped, and murdered? People no longer become under the influence of substantives which make them more dangerous? (note - I know that not all drugs make you dangerous, but some certainly do impair your judgement)

      Open violence may be less, but people are just as selfish, self-serving, egotistical, and evil. We have gotten good at generally hiding it, since we mostly have everything we typically want, in western civilization anyways.

    6. Re:Why such terms? by netsavior · · Score: 3, Informative

      until the late 1990s it was diagnosed by facial features and behavior. There is a very simple genetic test for it now (it shows up on a FISH test). Due to being in multiple WS societies/clubs I am in contact with many different levels of functioning in people with WS. I know a professional, barred, practicing lawyer who (we are 99% sure) has WS. But there is a big problem with high functioning people getting a diagnosis. WS is still considered to be "mental retardation" even though not all cases result in a below average IQ, so a professional lawyer CANNOT get diagnosed or he risks his license. We have met several people whom a geneticist would Diagnose on sight for sure, just based on the facial structure and eyes (blue with white starburst) but it is not a great idea to get saddled with what amounts to a "retarded" diagnosis, when you are high functioning.

      also co-existance of Autism and WS is common, like 10-20% of subjects who have ws

  3. Devoid of such racial bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They hate everyone equally.

  4. The grey race by hessian · · Score: 3, Funny

    Good. Now we can end racism and breed everyone into one uniform Grey Race that will be the future of humankind. We will preserve diversity by creating uniformity. It will be a victory for equality!

    --
    Futurist Traditionalism
  5. Bias is instinctual by ArcCoyote · · Score: 4, Informative

    The fear or distrust of "same as us but not one of us" is common.

    Many species of social animals (mainly larger predators: wolves, lions, etc.. ) act threatened when confronted with a different pack, pride, colony, etc of their own kind... more so than by the presence of a different species (such as humans).

    There's a damn good reason for it too. The group recognizes that other "tribe" of us wants the exact same thing we need to survive.

  6. On-line racism test by rwa2 · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is a really cool on-line rather objective test for determining what racial color biases you have:

    https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/

    This really really pisses off people who think they have no prejudice.

    *** Spoiler Alert ***
    To do well on the test (and get a neutral rating), you really have to accept the racial bias you have and actively prompt yourself to counter it.

  7. Re:GATTACA by mikael_j · · Score: 4, Funny

    The not so normal part about that is that he wants a daughter...

    --
    Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
  8. Re:Bad statistics by Lurker2288 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Do you actually understand the concept of statistical significance? From your use of the word 'insignificant' I doubt you're really understanding what the article is saying. Statistical significance is a different concept from what is typically meant by 'significance.'

    I'm probably oversimplifying a bit, but the error bars on the Williams bar in the figure is sufficiently large to include 50% ('pure chance'). This means that based on the number of children tested, the standard deviation around the estimated mean includes the chance value--therefore, we cannot say with any confidence that the 'true' mean differs from 50% in Williams children.

    In contrast, the error bar around the non-Williams children comes nowhere near 50%--that is, there is no reasonable way that resampling would produce a mean of 50%. Therefore the 'true mean' must be significantly different from 50%--and in this case, it is different in the direction of greater bias.

  9. Re:But race is not a valid basis to form connectio by sckeener · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What would happen if there were no word for race is, you'd have some kids who would be considered "uglier" than some others, and these "ugly" kids would form bonds with other kids considered "ugly". This would be the logical conclusion if race were removed.

    Actually if we didn't have the word race, we'd just have France's problem of trying to prove racial bias without using the word.

    Removing words will not solve the problem. It just makes it harder to talk about it.

    --
    "Only one thing, is impossible for god: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." Mark Twain