Heart Drug Makes People Less Racist

This is a rather interesting story concerning Oxford University researchers, who state that after giving 18 people propanolol, they became less racist.

Of course, like any study, it isn't as simple as that. It relates back to the subconscious racial bias, less noticeable than any concious racial bias. However, the grading system (Implicit Attitude Test) found that other given a placebo effect showed no such affect.

Researchers note that it cuts the racial bias because it blocks the non-conscious fear responses on which racism is based.

More found about this here , along with image source. 

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Student rejects Magdalen College, in a humorous way..

A story that has received a lot of press in the UK, is about Elly Nowell, who decided to reject Magdalen College at Oxford University. While that might sound like a bizarre set of events, after making her application, she decided to pull it. On doing so, she wrote a rather humorous letter, satirising the standard Oxford rejection letter, received by thousands of students:

"I very much regret to inform you that I will be withdrawing my application."

"I realise you may be disappointed by this decision, but you were in competition with many fantastic universities and following your interview I am afraid you do not quite meet the standard of the universities I will be considering."

She goes on to note, "while you may believe your decision to hold interviews in grand formal settings is inspiring, it allows public school applicants to flourish... and intimidates state school applicants, distorting the academic potential of both".

She does say the email was not to be taken too seriously, much like the interview process. Not sure if we agree with the latter part of that idea...

More on this article can be found here.

Image source here.

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