Magnets to the brain can change people’s views on immigrants and God

By quelling activity in a part of the brain that evaluates threats and plans responses, researchers can alter peoples’ views on immigrants and religion, The Daily Beast reports. The researchers shut down activity in peoples’ posterior medial frontal cortex using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)—a noninvasive technique that sends magnetic energy through the scalp. Then, they asked religious people who had undergone TMS and a control group to think about death and read a letter supposedly written by an immigrant critical of their country—a setup meant to present them with an immediate threat. (Past research has shown that people challenged in this way tend to double down on their beliefs.) Participants who received the real brain treatment expressed less bias against immigrants and also less belief in God, according to a study published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.