Racialized Disease Risk Messaging: At-Home Genetic Tests and Support for Policies Addressing Racial Health Disparities

• In Event: 30416 - The Culture and Politics of Emerging Technology

Abstract

The popularity of at-home genetic testing products has sparked debate about how these technologies impact our understanding and treatment of human differences. Do genetic technologies highlight the commonalities between social groups? Or do they naturalize differences, ascribing existing inequalities to nature rather than structural disadvantage? Speaking to this debate, I ask how interaction with genetic tests affects support for policies addressing racial disparities in health, education, and employment. In a survey experiment, a nationally representative sample of 350 individuals read either a vignette describing ethnicity as central to genetic predisposition for diseases (“ethnicity” vignette) or a vignette that did not mention ancestry and communicated disease risk in accordance with National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine guidelines for genomic research (“genetic similarity” vignette). Participants without prior genetic knowledge in the “genetic similarity” condition displayed higher likelihood of supporting policies that would ameliorate racial health disparities. In addition, participants of all genetic knowledge levels in the “genetic similarity” group displayed a higher likelihood of approving of the Affordable Care Act. These results suggest two mechanisms through which genetic technologies can fulfill egalitarian ideals: changes in the technology’s messaging and increases in the public’s genetic knowledge.

Author

• Meredith Caroline Riley, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill