Transcript Document

Arguments about race
Social scientists
Race is a social construction. There are no meaningful or
important differences between groups that have been
called different “races.”
Concerns: geneticization and increase in racism (history
and attitudinal research)
Biological scientists
“Ancestry” is not the same thing as race. Accurate
understanding of how genes work will prevent racism.
Concerns: geneticization and public (mis)understandings of
genetics
Race, health and genetic variation at the UI
What do “regular” UI experts think race is? Are there disciplinary
differences? Biological / social science differences? How do
professors / T.A.s teach about race in their classrooms?
What do students think race is? How do they incorporate, or not,
what they hear in UI classrooms about race, genes, health
disparities, evolution, behavior etc. into their beliefs about race?
Methods
Qualitative: 40 interviews with sociologists (9), biologists (8),
biological anthropologists (10), psychologists (2), and 5-10
undergraduate seniors from each discipline.
Quantitative: Student survey assessing (a) genetic / environmental
explanations of physical traits, behaviors, health conditions (b)
what happens to these explanations when race is a factor.
The Undergraduate Survey
GOAL 1:
1. (i) Identify the degree to which students have succumbed
to geneticizing trends. How likely are they, in general, to
explain a complex trait or behavior with reference to
genes, the focus of biology classes, or to the environment,
as emphasized by sociology courses, or (more accurately,
in the view of experts) to some combination of the two?
(ii) What is the effect of knowledge about genetics? Does
understanding what genes are, how they function and how
they are inherited make a student more or less likely to
look to genes when explaining human behavior or group
health disparities?
The Undergraduate Survey
Goal 2
How does race (when associated with a trait or behavior)
affect those explanations. Does the race of an individual
displaying a particular trait or behavior affect the extent to
which students look to the environment or to genetics to
account for it?
(Research shows association between racism and genetic
explanations of group differences)
The Undergraduate Survey
Goal 3:
Does priming students to think of reproduction, family and
kinship increase genetic explanations of behavior and / or
produce higher measures of racial prejudice?
The Undergraduate Survey
For each of the traits or behaviors described in the following questions,
please indicate what percent you think is due to the genes a person
inherits, and what percent is due to learning, experience, income,
education and other aspects of the environment.
21 point scale –
• finer grade choice
• may help prevent framing genes and environment as mutually
exclusive and oppositional.
Part 1
• List of 18 traits.
• Physical traits; height, skin color, freckles and birth
weight.
• Complex characteristics; athleticism, intelligence,
criminality, drive to succeed, sexual orientation, sexual
interest, alcoholism and drug abuse.
•
• Health conditions; diabetes, heart disease, lung cancer,
sickle-cell anemia, hemophilia, and breast cancer
Part 2 – Vignettes – 4 versions
• Version 1 - Stereotype-challenging
• A middle-aged white man who gets drunk several times a week and
often can't remember what happened during these drinking episodes.
• A 30 year-old Hispanic woman who is a good all round athlete, was
on the high school varsity basketball team at school and still works
out several times a week.
• A highly intelligent black man who did very well in school and is now a
partner in a large law firm.
• An Asian-American woman who dropped out of school at 16, was
arrested three times before she was 20 and is now serving time in
prison.
• A 50 year-old white woman who is diagnosed with high blood
pressure and at a high risk of suffering a stroke
Vignettes: Version 3 -Stereotype set
• A middle-aged black man who gets drunk several times a week
and often can't remember what happened during these drinking
episodes
• A 30 year-old white woman who is a good all round athlete,
was on the high school varsity basketball team at school and
still works out several times a week.
• A highly intelligent Asian-American man who did very well in
school and is now a partner in a large law firm.
• A Hispanic woman who dropped out of school at 16, was
arrested three times before she was 20 and is now serving time
in prison
• A 50 year-old black woman who is diagnosed with high blood
pressure and a high risk of suffering a stroke.
Vignettes – 2 Priming Questions
Version 2 (stereotype challenging + priming) and Version 4 (stereotype set + priming)
Inheritance and kinship
• Please indicate on the following list who genes are
inherited from:
• Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Aunt, Uncle, Grandparent,
Grandparent’s sister, Grandparent’s brother,
Grandparent’s parent.
• Reproduction and inheritance - Additional Vignette
• “A white / black woman who had two difficult pregnancies,
two premature (early) births and two infants who required
intensive medical care after birth.”
Part 3
• Brief definitions of concepts
• “a gene,”
• “ancestry”
• “evolution”
• “Social construction”
• Qualitative: The goal was to probe their understandings of
these concepts and to unearth any common
misconceptions.
Part 4
• Demographic
• Gender
• Age
• Race
• Political affiliation
• Major
• Racial attitude question
• “How comfortable would you be if a close family member
married a person who identifies as (white / African-American /
Hispanic / Asian-American / Native American)”
• V. comfortable / somewhat comfortable / somewhat
uncomfortable / v. uncomfortable
Abstract traits – Part 1
Scores
0 = 100% genetic
6 = 75% genetic
11 = 50% genetic
Characteristic
Mean Score
Percent due to genes
Skin Color
Height
Freckles
Birth Weight
3.49
4.70
5.56
8.71
87.5 %
81.5 %
77.5 %
61.5 %
Athleticism
Intelligence
Alcoholism
Drug Abuse
Drive to succeed
Criminality
10.14
10.56
11.69
13.19
14.80
16.83
54.5 %
52.25 %
46.5 %
39 %
31 %
21 %
Sexual Orientation
Sexual Interest
9.22
13.05
59 %
39.75 %
Sickle Cell Anemia
Hemophilia
4.61
4.65
82 %
81.75 %
Heart Disease
Diabetes
8.98
9.33
60 %
58.5 %
Lung Cancer
Breast Cancer
13.25
7.52
38.75 %
67.5 %
16 = 25% genetic
21 = 0% genetic
Vignettes
Alcoholism
BEFORE
Abstract
AFTER ->
VERSION
1
White
man
Mean:
Variance:
SD:
N:
11.69
23.04
4.80
527
% students
who responded
75% or more
genetic
23%
VERSION
2
VERSION
3
Black
man
VERSION
4
Cumulative
1+2+3+4
15.00
23.85
4.88
122
14.91
22.56
4.75
122
15.28
22.27
4.72
127
14.52
27.43
5.24
137
14.93
24.03
4.89
527
12%
10%
10%
10%
10.5%
Alcoholism
Athleticism
Athleticism
BEFORE
Abstract
AFTER
VERSION VERSION VERSION VERSION 4 Cumulative
1
2
3
1+2+3+4
Hispanic
White
woman
woman
Mean:
Variance:
SD:
N:
10.14
19.77
4.45
521
13.75
17.29
4.16
122
12.95
24.30
4.93
122
14.20
20.37
4.51
127
13.70
22.83
4.78
137
13.65
% students who
responded 75%
or more genetic
31%
8%
19%
9%
13%
12.25%
Athleticism
Intelligence
Intelligence
Mean:
Variance:
SD:
N:
% students who
responded 75%
or more genetic
BEFORE AFTER
Abstract VERSION VERSION
1
2
Black
man
10.56
13.69
12.66
19.68
25.35
28.26
4.44
5.03
5.32
525
121
121
VERSION
3
As-Am
man
14.04
25.02
5.00
127
VERSION Cumulative
4
1+2+3+4
13.50
24.49
4.95
137
13.47
26%
14%
16%
16.5%
15%
21%
Intelligence
Criminality
Criminality
BEFORE AFTER
Abstract VERSION VERSION
1
2
As-Am
woman
VERSION VERSION Cumulative
3
4
1+2+3+4
Hispan
Woman
Mean:
Variance:
SD:
N:
16.83
15.53
3.94
527
17.15
10.54
3.25
121
16.38
18.24
4.27
121
17.50
13.43
3.66
127
17.26
15.38
3.92
136
17.07
% students who
responded 75%
or more genetic
2%
1%
4%
4%
6%
3.75%
Criminality
Heart Disease
Heart Dx
BEFORE
Abstract
AFTER VERSION
VERSION 2
1
VERSION VERSION
3
4
Cumulative
1+2+3+4
Mean:
Variance:
SD:
N:
8.98
17.12
4.14
525
10.25
22.80
4.77
122
9.88
22.14
4.70
121
9.28
20.57
4.54
127
9.20
22.49
4.74
137
9.65
% students who
responded 75%
or more genetic
41%
32%
36%
43%
47%
39.5%
Heart Dx
White – racial attitude Q1
Questions for consultants
• Is the relationship between the vignette question form and the
decrease in genetic attributions significant?
• Control for gender, political affiliation?
• Difference between vignettes – i.e. effect of race and priming.
Is there a trend? What sample size would I need if I was to do
this again?
• Is there a relationship between genetic attributions and genetic
knowledge?
• Is there a relationship between racial discomfort and genetic
attributions? Overall? For each version?