Now that official restraints have been loosened, Americans nonetheless retreat into what Holder calls "race-protected cocoons" and rely upon cliches, stereotypes and familiar habits of ethnic and racial congregation instead of opening ourselves to the undeniably uncomfortable, but ultimately rewarding, prospect of facing each other across the chasm of learned behaviors and inherited reflexes.

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The authors point out that many of the behaviors they describe are learned.

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Of course, there is more to be learned about the impact of specific behaviors and exposures for individual diseases, and the analytic studies addressing these questions have their place.

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Behaviors that we have assumed were learned through nurturing and social interaction may have at their core something that is programmed into the brain.

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We encourage too much spending and you would have to think that people have learned some lessons here, so I hope that people may change their behaviors.

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