Hostname: page-component-669899f699-b58lm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-28T01:58:42.076Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

African Americans' opinions about human-genetics research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Paul Achter ,
Roxanne Parrott  and
Kami Silk
Paul Achter
Affiliation:
Department of Rhetoric and Communication Studies, 402 D Weinstein Hall, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23173 pachter@richmond.edu
Roxanne Parrott
Affiliation:
Communication Arts & Sciences, 206 Sparks Building, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 Rlp18@psu.edu
Kami Silk
Affiliation:
566 Communication Arts and Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 silkk@msu.edu
Get access

Abstract

Background.

Research on attitudes toward genetics and medicine registers skepticism among minority communities, but the reasons for this skepticism are not well known. In the past, studies linked mistrust of the medical system to historical ethics violations involving minority groups and to suspicions about ideological premise and political intent.

Methods.

To assess public knowledge, attitudes, and behavior regarding human-genetics research, we surveyed 858 Americans onsite in four community settings or online in a geographically nonspecific manner.

Results.

Compared to participants as a whole, African Americans were significantly more likely to believe that clinical trials might be dangerous and that the federal government knowingly conducted unethical research, including studies in which risky vaccines were administered to prison populations. However, African Americans were also significantly more likely to believe that the federal government worked to prevent environmental exposure to toxicants harmful to people with genetic vulnerabilities.

Conclusions.

Our data suggest that most Americans trust government to act ethically in sponsoring and conducting research, including genetics research, but that African Americans are particularly likely to see government as powerfully protective in some settings yet selectively disingenuous in others.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 60 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

1.Royal, C., “Anthropology, genetic diversity, and ethics.” Accessed online: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/21st/projects/GeneticDiversity/royal.html, February 21, 2004.Google Scholar
2.Mittman, I. S., “Genetic education to African American and Russian immigrant communities in northwest Baltimore.” In Zilinskas, Raymond A. and Baliant, Peter J. (eds). The Human Genome Project and minority communities. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001: 83–96.Google Scholar
3.Bowman, J. E., “Minority health issues in genetics,” Community Genetics, 1998, 1:142–144.Google Scholar
4.Beeson, D., Duster, T., “African American perspectives on genetic testing.” In Alper, Joseph, Ard, Catherine, Asch, Adrienne, Beckwith, Jon, Conrad, Peter, and Geller, Lisa N., (eds). The double-edged helix: social implications of genetics in a diverse society, 2002, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 151–172.Google Scholar
5.Jackson, F., “African American responses to the Human Genome Project,” Public Understandings of Science 8, 1999, 8:181–191.Google Scholar
6.Jackson, F., “The Human Genome Project and the African American community: Race, diversity, American science.” In Zilinskas, Raymond and Baliant, Peter J. (eds). The human genome project and minority communities (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001).Google Scholar
7.Stevens, J., “Racial meanings and scientific methods: changing policies for NIH-sponsored publications reporting human variation,” Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, Dec. 6, 2003, 28:1033–1087.Google Scholar
8.Armas, G. C., “Census: Number of uninsured up,” Associated Press, accessed September 30, 2002, Yahoo.com.Google Scholar
9.Wickham, D., “‘Barbershop’ flap deflects focus from economic woes,” September 30, 2002, USA Today. Accessed October 2, 2002 atwww.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/wickham/2002-09-30-wickham_x.htm.Google Scholar
10.National Science Foundation Science and Engineering Indicators (2002). Chapter 7, “Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding,” 2002. Online athttp://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/c7/c7h.htm. Accessed March 25, 2004, pp. A7–A14.Google Scholar
11.Singer, E., Corning, A., Lamias, M., “The polls—trends: Genetic testing, engineering, and therapy awareness and attitudes.” Public Opinion Quarterly, 1998, 62:633–664.Google Scholar
12.NBC News, Wall Street Journal Poll, June, 2000. Conducting Study: Hart and Teeter Research Companies.Google Scholar
13.Pew Research Center, News Interest Index Poll, July 27, 2000. Conducting study: Princeton Survey Research Associates.Google Scholar
14.Peterson, T. R., “How well-intentioned facilitation efforts contribute to escalation of violence in the dialogue among citizens who participate in intractable environmental disputes.” Paper presented at the eighth Public Address Conference, October, 2002, Athens, Georgia.Google Scholar
15.Siminoff, L. A., Arnold, R., “Increasing organ donation in the African-American community: altruism in the face of an untrustworthy system.” Annals of Internal Medicine, 1999, 130(7): 607–609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Mouton, C. P., Harris, S., Rovi, S., Solorzano, P., Johnson, M. S., “Barriers to black women's participation in cancer clinical trials.” Journal of the National Medical Association, 1997, 89:721–727.Google Scholar
17.Morgan, S. E., Cannon, T., “African Americans' knowledge about organ donation: closing the gap with more effective persuasive message strategies.” Journal of the National Medical Association, 2003, 95(11): 1066–1071.Google Scholar
18.Parrott, R., Silk, K. A., Condit, C. M., “Diversity in lay perceptions of the sources of human traits: Genes, environments, and personal behaviors,” Social Science & Medicine, 2003, 56:1099–1109.Google Scholar
19.Wertz, D. C., “African-Americans' views on ethical issues in genetics: results of a public survey,” Journal of Genetic Counseling, 1998, 7(6): 511–512.Google Scholar
20.Condit, C., Templeton, A., Bates, B. R., Bevan, J. L., Harris, T. A., “Attitudinal barriers to delivery of race-targeted pharmacogenomics among informed lay persons,” Genetics in Medicine, September-October 2003, 5:385–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21.Furr, L. A., “Perceptions of genetics research as harmful to society: differences among samples of African-Americans and European-Americans,” Genetic Testing, 2002, 6:25–30.Google Scholar
22.Furr, L. A., Seger, R. E., “Psychosocial predictors of interest in prenatal genetic screening,” Psychology Reports, 1998, 82:235–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23.Lee, S. L., Mountain, J., Koenig, B., “The meanings of “race” in the new genomics: Implications for health disparities research,” Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics, 2001, p. 64.Google Scholar
24.Morgan, S. E., Cannon, T., “African Americans' knowledge about organ donation: closing the gap with more effective persuasive message strategies.” Journal of the National Medical Association, 2003, 95(11): 1066–1071.Google Scholar
25.Parrott, R., Silk, K., Weiner, J., Condit, C., Harris, T., Bernhardt, J., “Deriving Lay Models of Uncertainty About Genes' Role in Illness Causation to Guide Communication About Human Genetics,” Journal of Communication, 2004, 54:105–122.Google Scholar
26.Genia, V., “A psychometric evaluation of the Allport-Ross I/E scales in a religiously heterogeneous sample,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1993, 32:284–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27.Wallston, B. S., Wallston, K. A., Kaplan, G. D., Maides, S. A., “Development and validation of the health locus of control (HLC) scale,” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1976, 44:580–585.Google Scholar
28.Kalichman, S. C., Kelly, J. A., Morgan, M.Rompa, D., Fatalism, current life satisfaction and risk for HIV infection among gay and bisexual men, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1997, 65(4): 542–546.Google Scholar