A PERSON’S heartbeat can affect their attitude towards black people when faced with a potential threat, researchers have found.

The study was carried out by Brighton and Sussex Medical School and the University of Sussex in partnership with scientists at Royal Holloway.

In particular, participants were likely to misperceive a situation involving a black person as life-threatening, when experienced during a heartbeat rather than between heartbeats.

This could have important implications in tackling the high number of shootings of unarmed black people, researchers said.

Researchers hope this could lead to the development of new approaches to responding to threatening situations.

Participants in the experiment saw pictures that depicted black or white individuals holding either a gun or mobile phone.

It was found that when the image was flashed at them during a heartbeat, as opposed to between heartbeats, they were approximately 10 per cent more likely to perceive the object as a gun when it was held by a black person.

In particular, the study has implications on how to tackle police shootings.

Medical school researcher, Doctor Sarah Garfinkel, said: “This research has important implications for understanding racially based behaviour.

“We can use it to think about ways to target this heart-brain communication to reduce the tragedies caused by racial bias.”

Professor Manos Tsakiris from Royal Holloway said: “There is much existing evidence to show people are more likely to misidentify harmless objects as weapons when held by black people. Recent events have brought this bias to the fore. Black Americans are more than twice as likely as white Americans to be killed during encounters with the police.

“The fact this bias exists is well documented, but until now we haven’t understood how our heart may influence our head when it comes to perceiving threat in this situation. Bodily arousal plays a significant part in how our brain interprets a situation, and the decisions we subsequently take.”

Researchers said while the study specifically looked at the bias against black individuals, it is possible this could apply in other situations. When physically and emotionally aroused – as in a tense situation – faster, stronger heartbeats may lead to a greater likelihood of perceiving threat where there is none and making an error in judgement.

A report on the study is published in Nature Communications.