Even the lead researcher said he was surprised by the results (Picture: Getty)

A little siesta can make you less racist, claim scientists.

The bizarre findings come from a unique experiment in which participants were trained before going for a 90-minute nap.

They were shown an array of faces linked with maths or science-related words.

Then they were shown black faces linked with pleasant words.


Two sounds associated with each were played throughout the task.

The idea behind this was to reduce both racial and gender bias.

A bit of this could make you less racist (Picture: dolgachov/Getty)

As they entered a deep sleep, one of the sounds was played repeatedly.

After people woke up, what they could remember was changed because learning-related sounds were presented during sleep.



The research revealed that when a sound was played the participants’ bias scores were severely reduced compared to when no sound was heard.

Ken Paller, senior author of the study and professor of psychology, said: ‘We call this Targeted Memory Reactivation, because the sounds played during sleep could produce relatively better memory for information cued during sleep compared to information not cued during sleep.

‘For example, we used this procedure to selectively improve spatial memory, such as learning the locations of a set of objects, and skill memory, like learning to play a melody on a keyboard.’

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