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Scientific supremacy: How do genetic narratives relate to racism?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2023

H. Hannah Nam  and
Katherine Sawyer
H. Hannah Nam
Affiliation:
Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY, USA 11210
Katherine Sawyer*
Affiliation:
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA 11794
*
Corresponding author: Katherine Sawyer; Email: katherine.sawyer@stonybrook.edu
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Abstract

Recent research suggests that contemporary American society is marked by heightened hostile racial rhetoric, alongside increasing salience of White nationalists who justify an ideology of racial hierarchy with claims of biological superiority. Media coverage of such genetics research has often emphasized a deterministic (or causal) narrative by suggesting that specific genes directly increase negative outcomes and highlighting reported genetic differences between racial groups. Across two experimental studies, we examine the effect of the media’s portrayal of scientific findings linking genes with negative health and behavioral outcomes on measures of racism. We find that deterministic genetic attributions for health and behavioral outcomes can lead to more negative racial out-group attitudes. Importantly, we also investigate potential interventions in the presentation of genetic science research. Our research has implications for understanding racial attitudes and racialized ideology in contemporary American politics, as well as for framing scientific communication in intergroup contexts.

Keywords

biopoliticsgeneticsmediaracial attitudes
Type
Research Article
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 43 , Special Issue 1: Infectious disease and national security special issue , Spring 2024 , pp. 99 - 131
Open Practices
Open data Open materials Preregistered
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences

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Footnotes

This article was awarded Open Data, Open Materials, and Preregistration badges for transparent practices. See the data availability statement for details.

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