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

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the work of Bryce Bartlett of Duke University Sociology for conducting the statistical testing and working with the team on interpreting results. The authors are grateful to the survey respondents who took the time to participate in the study.

Funding

This research was supported, in part, by Grant Number 1R01HG006295-01 from the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference (GRID), Social Science Research Institute, C103C, Duke University, Box 90420, Durham, NC, 27708-0420, USA

    Simon Outram

  2. Joint School for Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, North Carolina A&T State University, 2907 East Gate City Blvd., Greensboro, NC, 27401, USA

    Joseph L. Graves

  3. Center for Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference (GRID), Social Science Research Institute, C103a, Duke University, Box 90420, Durham, NC, 27708-0420, USA

    Jill Powell

  4. Department of Physician Assistant Studies, Emory & Henry College, 565 Radio Hill Road, Marion, VA, 24354, USA

    Chantelle Wolpert

  5. Department of Political Science, Duke University, 279 Gross Hall, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Kerry L. Haynie

  6. School of Community and Environmental Health, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, 23508, USA

    Morris W. Foster

  7. Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, 455 West Lindsey Street, DHT 511, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Jessica W. Blanchard

  8. Department of Biostatistics, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7400, USA

    Anna Hoffmeyer & Robert P. Agans

  9. Center for Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference (GRID), Social Science Research Institute, C103f, Duke University, Box 90420, Durham, NC, 27708-0420, USA

    Charmaine D. M. Royal

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  1. Simon Outram
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  2. Joseph L. Graves
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  3. Jill Powell
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  4. Chantelle Wolpert
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  10. Charmaine D. M. Royal
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Correspondence to Simon Outram.

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Outram, S., Graves, J.L., Powell, J. et al. Genes, Race, and Causation: US Public Perspectives About Racial Difference. Race Soc Probl 10, 79–90 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-018-9223-7

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