A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto hopes science can defeat racism. The study asserts that by educating individuals of our genetic similarities—humans are 99.9 percent genetically similar—we can diffuse the idea that skin color makes us different.
According to the findings, participants who were more informed of genetic overlap between strangers were less likely to racially profile.
… participants had to rate words (e.g. “disgusting”, “delightful”) as either positive or negative as fast as they could. A crucial twist was that the words were preceded by a face prime with varying degrees of racial black or whiteness. For the participants who read the low genetic overlap text, the racial profile of the face prime made a difference – they were quicker to categories negative words after a face that was 25 per cent black or more.”