Genes, Race, and Causation: US Public Perspectives About Racial Difference

Outram, Simon

Graves, Joseph L

Powell, Jill

Wolpert, Chantelle

Haynie, Kerry L

Foster, Morris W

Blanchard, Jessica W

Hoffmeyer, Anna

Agans, Robert P

Royal, Charmaine Dm

2019-08-02T05:02:57Z

2019-08-02T05:02:57Z

2018-06-01

2019-08-02T05:02:57Z

© 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. Concerns have been raised that the increase in popular interest in genetics may herald a new era within which racial inequities are seen as “natural” or immutable. In the following study, we provide data from a nationally representative survey on how the US population perceives general ability, athleticism, and intellect being determined by race and/or genetics and whether they believe racial health inequities to be primarily the product of genetic or social factors. We find that self-described race is of primary importance in attributing general ability to race, increasing age is a significant factor in attributing athleticism and intellect to genes and race, and education is a significant factor in decreasing such racially and genetically deterministic views. Beliefs about the meaning of race are statistically significantly associated with respect to the perception of athletic abilities and marginally associated with the perception of racial health inequalities being either socially or genetically derived. Race, education, socioeconomic status, and concepts of race were frequently found to be multiplicative in their statistical effects. The persistent acceptance of a genetically and racially deterministic view of athleticism among the White and older population group is discussed with respect to its social impact, as is the high level of agreement that general abilities are determined by race among non-White respondents and those of lower socioeconomic status. We argue that these findings highlight that both biological and non-biological forms of understanding race continue to play a role into the politics of race and social difference within contemporary US society.

1867-1748

1867-1756

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19163

en

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Race and Social Problems

10.1007/s12552-018-9223-7

Social Sciences

Ethnic Studies

Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary

Sociology

Social Sciences - Other Topics

Race

Genetics

Causality

Health

Determinism

Inequity

SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS

UNITED-STATES

GENETICS

AMERICANS

REINSCRIPTION

ESSENTIALISM

EXPLANATIONS

PERCEPTIONS

ATTITUDES

ANCESTRY

Genes, Race, and Causation: US Public Perspectives About Racial Difference

Journal article

Royal, Charmaine Dm|0000-0003-3593-851X

79

90

2

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Duke

Biology

Duke Science & Society

Initiatives

Institutes and Provost's Academic Units

Duke Global Health Institute

University Institutes and Centers

Family Medicine and Community Health, Community Health

Family Medicine and Community Health

Clinical Science Departments

School of Medicine

Political Science

Published

10