Toward a more humane genetics education: Learning about the social and quantitative complexities of human genetic variation research could reduce racial bias in adolescent and adult populations

Donovan, Brian; Semmens, Rob; Keck, Phillip S.; Brimhall, Elizabeth; Busch, K. C.; Weindling, Monica; Duncan, Alex; Stuhlsatz, Molly; Bracey, Zoë E. Buck; Bloom, Mark; Kowalski, Susan M.; Salazar, Brae

doi:10.1002/sce.21506

Cited by 74 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 154 publications

(272 reference statements)

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“…People with higher pre-test genetic knowledge may also have other characteristics that contribute to the testing experience's reduction in essentialism such as openness to new ideas or stronger critical thinking. Yet, just as teaching adolescents scientifically accurate information about genetic variation between and within races can reduce their racial biases [59], increasing any test-takers' genetic knowledge may also help them put their test results in context. Such a finding might imply that educational materials or online genetics modules for future test-takers could help prevent these tests from advancing historically destructive views.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do genetic ancestry tests increase racial essentialism? Findings from a randomized controlled trial

et al. 2020

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Genetic ancestry testing is a billion-dollar industry, with more than 26 million tests sold by 2018, which raises concerns over how it might influence test-takers' understandings of race. While social scientists argue that genetic ancestry tests may promote an essentialist view of race as fixed and determining innate abilities, others suggest it could reduce essentialist views by reinforcing a view of race as socially constructed. Essentialist views are a concern because of their association with racism, particularly in its most extreme forms. Here we report the first randomized controlled trial of genetic ancestry testing conducted to examine potential causal relationships between taking the tests and essentialist views of race. Native-born White Americans were randomly assigned to receive Admixture and mtDNA tests or no tests. While we find no significant average effect of genetic ancestry testing on essentialism, secondary analyses reveal that the impact of these tests on racial essentialism varies by type of genetic knowledge. Within the treatment arm, essentialist beliefs significantly declined after testing among individuals with high genetic knowledge, but increased among those with the least genetic knowledge. Additional secondary analysis show that essentialist beliefs do not change based on the specific ancestries reported in test-takers' results. These results indicate that individuals' interpretations of genetic ancestry testing results, and the links between genes and race, may depend on their understanding of genetics.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do genetic ancestry tests increase racial essentialism? Findings from a randomized controlled trial

et al. 2020

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“…As stated by Donovan (35), "when people are exposed to genetic explanations for group-based outcomes, it tends to strengthen a cognitive bias implicated in our reasoning about social categories," thus reinforcing the biological essentialism misconception. However, when students compare genetic variation within and between races, racial bias can be reduced (36). After critically analyzing the data around the "race is biological" misconception, students had an accurate understanding of the levels of between-and within-group genetic variation (35).…”

Section: Historical Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Culturally Relevant Pedagogy to Reconsider the Genetics Canon

Sparks

Baldwin

Darner

2020

J Microbiol Biol Educ.

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In this article, we explore culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) to work toward alleviating persistent underrepresentation in STEM fields of oppressed minorities. We argue that biology instructors can practice agency, or the capacity to act in ways that undermine opportunity gaps that lead to underrepresentation, by developing themselves into culturally relevant pedagogues who are committed to underrepresented minority (URM) students' learning and career success, who demonstrate cultural competence, and who develop a sociopolitical consciousness regarding the culturally laden nature of their discipline. We then explore Gregor Mendel's story to demonstrate the culturally laden nature of the history of science as well as the nature of our current curricular canon. The article concludes with a postulated alternative method to genetics education in a general biology course that reflects the culturally laden nature of our genetics knowledge, as well as our current understanding of inheritance.

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“…We take Donovan's words here as a directive when he wrote, "If repeated exposure to racial terminology in biology causes increases in bio-behavioral essentialism and prejudice because it leads students to perceive too much variation between races, then perhaps teaching students about the low amount of variation that actually exists across races will decrease racial bias. " With some colleagues, Donovan went on to test that hypothesis, and found that teaching students about genetic variation between U.S. census groupings significantly reduced their prejudice (Donovan et al 2019). In this light, it is encouraging to see professional organizations, such as the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) and the American Association of Physical (Biological) Anthropologists (AAP/BA), affirming their commitment to improve public genetic literacy in an effort to address misconceptions about genetics, ancestry, and "race", particularly how such knowledge is misused by white supremacist agendas (ASHG 2018; AAPA 2019).…”

Section: Biology Education "Race" and Racismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human races are not like dog breeds: refuting a racist analogy

et al. 2019

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In 1956, evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane posed a question to anthropologists: "Are the biological differences between human groups comparable with those between groups of domestic animals such as greyhounds and bulldogs…?" It reads as if it were posted on social media today. The analogy comparing human races to dog breeds is not only widespread in history and pop culture, but also sounds like scientific justification for eschewing the social construction of race, or for holding racist beliefs about human nature. Here we answer Haldane's question in an effort to improve the public understanding of human biological variation and "race"-two phenomena that are not synonymous. Speaking to everyone without expert levels of familiarity with this material, we investigate whether the dog breed analogy for human race stands up to biology. It does not. Groups of humans that are culturally labeled as "races" differ in population structure, genotype-phenotype relationships, and phenotypic diversity from breeds of dogs in unsurprising ways, given how artificial selection has shaped the evolution of dogs, not humans. Our demonstration complements the vast body of existing knowledge about how human "races" differ in fundamental sociocultural, historical, and political ways from categories of nonhuman animals. By the end of this paper, readers will understand how the assumption that human races are the same as dog breeds is a racist strategy for justifying social, political, and economic inequality.

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Toward a more humane genetics education: Learning about the social and quantitative complexities of human genetic variation research could reduce racial bias in adolescent and adult populations

Cited by 74 publications

References 154 publications

Do genetic ancestry tests increase racial essentialism? Findings from a randomized controlled trial

Do genetic ancestry tests increase racial essentialism? Findings from a randomized controlled trial

Using Culturally Relevant Pedagogy to Reconsider the Genetics Canon

Human races are not like dog breeds: refuting a racist analogy

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