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Science 29 July 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5735, pp. 711 - 713
DOI: 10.1126/science.1116710
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Perspectives

PSYCHOLOGY:
Conditioned Fear of a Face: A Prelude to Ethnic Enmity?

Arne Öhman

In his Perspective, Öhman discusses a study that examines human fear responses (Olsson et al.). Our conditioned fear response to snakes and spiders--one of avoidance--is the same as our response to a person who is not of the same race. This may help our understanding of intergroup violence.

The author is in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska institutet, SE-17176 Stockholm, Sweden. He is currently a scholar at the Center for Advanced Studies of Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA 94305-8090, USA. E-mail: arne.ohman{at}cns.ki.se

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)