“We Don’t Need a Swab in Our Mouth to Prove Who We Are”

Impacts of personal DNA ancestry testing

“…Different categorizations and options for classifying self-reported race and ethnicity across studies might also account for the mixed findings. Additionally, we found no significant association between testing impacts and ancestry results that were considered discrepant relative to baseline self-reported race/ethnicity, which aligns with previous research findings and theories that argue an individual's family and cultural upbringing might be more influential for identity formation than scientific information [36,68,10,5,69]. Baseline trait anxiety was positively associated with changed perceptions after testing related to world travel and views of cultures and regions.…”

“…Consistent with other studies, our participants also reported similar negative aspects of testing, such as receiving unwelcome or unexpected information which could complicate one's understanding of their ancestry [45,36]. It has been suggested that identity changes are a result of an "interplay of macro-, meso-, and micro-level processes" [45], thus, receiving test results might be just one piece of a larger process of understanding one's identity [69]. Others have previously written about the intersection of DNA ancestry testing, genetic determinism, and racism [74][75][76]5] as well as the potential for DNA ancestry tests to reinforce discriminatory rhetoric and behavior [36].…”

“…Notably, however, those who reported a disadvantage in receiving their results were less likely to do so (e.g., one hypothesis to explain this could be that the results contradicted what the respondents thought about themselves based on family narratives). Thus, it's possible that these respondents chose to navigate the contradiction [11] by keeping the results to themselves and dismissing them, ultimately, rather than sharing the results and potentially disrupting familial bonds which are constructed socially as well as biologically [69,7]. Participants who reported an advantage were more likely to report change in their perception of their cultural roots and intention to share results with family members.…”

“…Another explanation stems from the hypothesis that ancestry testing might reinforce racial privileges. For example, ancestry testing has been used to reinforce white privilege and eugenics rhetoric among White supremacists [76], and ancestry results have been appropriated to claim entitlement to tribal or scholarship benefits reserved for indigenous or minority groups [8,36,66,14,9,10,5,69]. A third explanation might be that individuals who self-identified as a category other than "Caucasian" in our study were only interested in the health-related genomic testing that was part of the larger SGHI longitudinal study and not the ancestry testing component.…”

“…DTC DNA ancestry testing's recent and projected growth has critical policy implications in a variety of settings [66,10,5,69]. The perceived lack of oversight of DTC DNA ancestry testing by regulatory bodies has raised concerns about its uses [38], especially in high-stakes settings such as healthcare, U.S. Census reporting, Native American tribal affiliation, college admissions, and job enrollment [39,65,18,35,40].…”