Racism Rewired: How Neuroscience and Economics Expose a Broken Logic

A simple image, a profound implication.

First, extend your two hands in front of your face and make fists. Hold them together, thumbs up. Bend your elbows so your fists are about a foot from your face. Your two touching fists approximate the size of your brain—an object so small it could rest between your palms, yet so extraordinary it holds the essence of what makes you human. Packed inside this small space are roughly 86 billion neurons, each a microscopic marvel of electrochemical precision, connecting through about 100 trillion synapses. Together, they form an adaptive, self-repairing network capable of imagination, empathy, and invention—the biological foundation of civilization itself (Herculano-Houzel, 2009).

Your brain is wired for connection, not division. Its architecture evolved to learn from others, cooperate, and exchange value. This shared neural inheritance—granted freely at birth—is humanity’s greatest common asset. Every person carries a version of this same biological supercomputer, prewired for curiosity and social learning, yet uniquely shaped by environment and experience.

This article, “Racism Rewired,” explores how that shared gift can be misdirected—and how we can consciously realign it. Racism and other “-isms” are evolutionary-based biases misplaced in the modern world. The same mental shortcuts that once helped our ancestors make fast, life-preserving decisions can, today, lead to false judgments and exclusion. When these reflexes go unexamined, they distort perception, limit cooperation, and waste humanity’s most valuable resource: the collective power of our minds.

Here, we will trace how evolution’s shortcuts—our instinctive sorting, tribalism, and emotional tagging—can turn learning into discrimination. Then, we will explore how decision science, neuroplasticity, and economic cooperation allow us to rewire those instincts for understanding, fairness, and shared prosperity.

In a world overflowing with complex challenges, inclusion is not charity—it is strategy. The more minds we engage, the smarter, wealthier, and more resilient we all become.

About the author: Jeff Hulett leads Personal Finance Reimagined, a decision-making and financial education platform. He teaches personal finance at James Madison University and provides personal finance seminars. Check out his book -- Making Choices, Making Money: Your Guide to Making Confident Financial Decisions.

Jeff is a career banker, data scientist, behavioral economist, and choice architect. Jeff has held banking and consulting leadership roles at Wells Fargo, Citibank, KPMG, and IBM.

The article image was inspired by Alma Thomas’s artwork, “Resurrection.”

From brains to better worlds

When many adaptive brains connect, possibilities compound. Markets emerge as coordination systems where people specialize, trade, and innovate. The result: longer lives, better health, and historic reductions in global poverty. Coordination beats isolation because diverse perspectives and skills increase problem-solving surface area while lowering transaction costs. In short, progress scales when more brains contribute.

Why racism (and other “-isms”) is irrational

Racism misreads the container and ignores the contents. Melanin adjusts to latitude to protect tissue from UV exposure. Skin tone emerged as a local adaptation for survival, not a marker of cognitive potential. Conflating pigment with potential cripples the very system—collective learning—that produces human flourishing. It is a category error with compounding costs: fewer ideas, slower diffusion of know-how, and weaker networks.

Think about it this way. Imagine going apple picking and returning with two bags, each holding twenty perfect red delicious apples—same size, same ripeness, same sweetness. The only difference: one bag is tan, the other cream. Would anyone care about the color of the bag when what matters is the fruit inside? Of course not. Yet societies have made this very mistake for centuries—focusing on the color of the container instead of the brilliance of the neurons and synapses within it.

Ironically, the very diversity in “container color” exists to protect those neurons. Higher melanin content evolved to shield the brain from ultraviolet radiation near the equator, while lighter skin improved vitamin D absorption in northern climates. These adaptations helped preserve the same cognitive machinery—the same 86 billion neurons—across humanity. We differ on the surface precisely to safeguard what makes us the same underneath.

From a scientific and economic perspective, racism is not only immoral—it is inefficient. By devaluing entire groups, societies restrict the flow of ideas and talent that drive innovation and prosperity. The tragedy of discrimination is not only the suffering it causes, but the opportunity it destroys. Each discriminated person represents 86 billion neurons—and roughly 100 trillion synaptic connections—silenced from contributing to humanity’s progress. When millions are excluded, the collective loss is staggering: a massive waste of cognitive capital, creativity, and human potential. Every mind barred from the marketplace of ideas diminishes the shared wealth of knowledge that powers growth and flourishing.

In short, racism is both a moral failure and a mathematical one—a rejection of the most powerful force evolution ever produced: the human brain.

Why racism can occur—and how decision systems defeat it

Racism begins in the same place all learning begins: the brain’s need to simplify. Our neural wiring evolved to filter an overwhelming stream of sensory data into patterns enabling survival. This process—learning through discrimination—is, at its core, adaptive. We constantly separate signal from noise, relevance from distraction. Yet this same filtering ability that enables good learning can, under certain conditions, misfire into social discrimination. The paradox is that both arise from the same system. What feels like rational learning may, in fact, be bias wearing the mask of reason.

Tribalism has a good side. It helps us bond with family, build communities, and create shared identity. Yet by definition, every ingroup creates an outgroup—those viewed with suspicion or ignored entirely. This instinct is not moral or malicious; it is the byproduct of how we learn, turned toward our social world. The challenge is knowing where “good” learning ends and harmful social discrimination begins. Much of this sorting occurs subconsciously, below the reach of awareness. Our brains, shaped for ancient threats, still default to tribal shortcuts when faced with uncertainty. The same circuits once helping us distinguish friend from foe can now trigger unease toward those who look, speak, or think differently. Tribalism, amplified by oxytocin and confirmation bias, is the unintended dark side of our brain’s efficiency—an ancient algorithm running in a world that has outgrown it.

Yet evolution gave us a second gift: the capacity to override our defaults through deliberate decision-making. Tools such as structured reflection, feedback, and data-driven choice frameworks act as cognitive counterweights, converting instinct into insight. When we slow down our reasoning, surface hidden assumptions, and weigh evidence systematically, we reengage the full power of our 86 billion neurons. Inclusion, then, is not just moral progress—it is neurological and intellectual progress. Decision systems such as Definitive Choice operationalize this capacity, turning awareness into action and helping society rewire instinct for understanding.

The brain science case

Understanding why racism occurs is only half the story; the next step is learning how the brain can change. Neuroscience reveals the same mechanisms responsible for bias—emotion tagging, rapid heuristics, and selective attention—also enable growth, cooperation, and adaptation. The brain is not fixed; it is a dynamic network capable of rewiring itself through feedback and intention. These biological realities show inclusion is not just an ethical aspiration but a measurable, neurological advantage.

• Emotion tags guide attention. The brain assigns salience to inputs before slow language engages. Emotion-first processing can speed action, yet also seeds bias when signals feel strong but evidence runs thin (Finucane et al., 2000).

• Heuristics are fast; biases are their by-product. Rapid judgments help in emergencies, yet produce systematic errors when applied to complex social inference (Kahneman, 2011).

• Habits automate learning. Habits act like icons running preset routines that save mental energy. Yet anything on autopilot drifts over time. Regular feedback and context shifts help reprogram these loops for accuracy and alignment (Graybiel, 2008).

• Neuroplasticity enables course correction. Habits, feedback, and environments reshape synapses. With intention and structure, groups can update beliefs and behavior (Dehaene, 2014).

• Oxytocin, dopamine, and acetylcholine support trust, motivation, and focus. Inclusive settings increase cooperative signals, reinforce learning loops, and improve team performance (Zak, 2013).

The upshot: inclusion is not only ethical, it is a superior learning architecture.

The decision science case

Bias thrives when incentives reward speed over accuracy, identity over evidence, or signals over outcomes. Goodhart’s Law warns: when a measure becomes a target, it can distort behavior. Labels, quotas, or zero-sum frames can backfire if they replace skill-building and cooperation with status contests. Better design uses decision frameworks that surface criteria, weigh evidence, and align incentives with long-term value. Structure converts good intentions into repeatable gains.

The economics case

Wealth grows when societies lower barriers to exchange and widen access to opportunity. Excluding talent shrinks the idea frontier and raises transaction costs. As Adam Smith observed, humans are naturally inclined to trade—not only goods, but ideas, skills, and trust. David Ricardo later formalized this insight through comparative advantage: people and nations prosper most when they specialize in their strengths and freely exchange value. Markets punish waste; exclusion is waste. The strongest economies use more brains, not fewer.

The incentive for everyone

A safer, wealthier world depends on putting all human brainpower on the field. Every excluded voice slows progress, reduces resilience, and narrows the search for solutions. Inclusion is not charity—it is optimization. Racism and related “-isms” waste the most powerful resource evolution ever produced: the human mind.

At its core, this is a question of incentives. Systems rewarding cooperation, curiosity, and shared progress outperform those built on fear, exclusion, or zero-sum thinking.

Neurobiology shows cooperative learning beats tribal sorting. Decision science shows structure beats slogans. Economics shows inclusion compounds value.

The conclusion is clear: inclusion is both morally right and mathematically sound. A world welcoming every mind to contribute is a world growing smarter, wealthier, and more resilient for everyone.

Summary: Center inclusion in your systems. Use decision frameworks, aligned incentives, and human-guided AI to unlock more brainpower and compound societal wealth.

Resources for the Curious

• Hulett, Jeff. “Inside Your Brain: The Hidden Forces Behind Every Decision You Make.” The Curiosity Vine, 2020.

• Hulett, Jeff. “How We Learn Is How We Discriminate.” The Curiosity Vine, 2023.

• Hulett, Jeff. “Challenging Our Beliefs: Expressing Our Free Will and How to Be Bayesian in Our Day-to-Day Life.” The Curiosity Vine, 2023.

• Herculano-Houzel, Suzana. The Human Brain in Numbers: A Linearly Scaled-Up Primate Brain. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 3(31), 2009.

• Finucane, Melissa et al. “The Affect Heuristic in Judgments of Risks and Benefits.” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 13(1), 2000, 1–17.

• Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.

• Kahneman, Daniel; Sibony, Olivier; and Sunstein, Cass R. Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment. Little, Brown Spark, 2021.

• Sapolsky, Robert M. Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. Penguin Press, 2017.

• Graybiel, Ann M. “Habits, Rituals, and the Evaluative Brain.” Annual Review of Neuroscience, 31(1), 2008, 359–387.

• Dehaene, Stanislas. Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts. Viking, 2014.

• Zak, Paul J. “The Neurobiology of Trust and Moral Behavior.” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 8(3), 2013, 224–232.

• Taylor, Jill Bolte. My Stroke of Insight. Viking, 2008.

• Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776.

• Ricardo, David. On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. John Murray, 1817.