This project draws on the relation between genetics instruction and psychological biases associated with the development of racial stereotyping. Previous research has suggested that when students are taught genetics in particular ways, it increases faulty assumptions. For example, learning about the prevalence of sickle cell anemia in people of African descent and the prevalence of Cystic Fibrosis in people of European descent can cause middle and high school students to infer that racial groups vary in intelligence, academic ability, and science ability because of genetics. Conversely, educational interventions which teach students that there is more genetic variation within races rather than between them can reduce the belief that genes cause racial groups to differ in their intellectual, academic, and science abilities. What is still unknown is why does human genetics education cause these changes in racial bias during adolescence? Using experimental, quasi-experimental, and qualitative research methods, this research will identify the cognitive, social, and educational factors that link the learning of human genetics to reductions in racial bias. In doing so, this project will explore how learning about human difference in the biology classroom affects how adolescents view people of different races outside of the classroom. Consequently, this work could help educators understand how to teach about the science of human difference in a socially-responsible manner. This project is supported by the Education and Human Resources Core Research program, which funds fundamental research in STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.
This project will investigate factors that mediate and/or moderate the impact of an anti-essentialist genetics education on explicit and implicit forms of racial bias during adolescence. Genetic essentialism of race is a psychological bias which leads people to underestimate the actual genetic variability that exists within races and to overestimate the genetic variability that exists between races. Studies have established that this bias is implicated in the development of racial stereotyping and prejudice across human development and across cultures in Western societies. Essentialism is also associated with misconceptions about biological variation and evolution. The links between essentialism, racial bias, and biological misconceptions are due, in part, to the fact that essentialist worldviews are inconsistent with biological theory and data. This project will explore the enactment of an anti-essentialist genetics intervention in the context of middle and high school biology classrooms to understand whether and how this intervention reduces implicit and explicit forms of racial bias. The work will center on the implementation of an existing anti-essentialist genetics education intervention which has been shown to reduce explicit forms of racial bias among adolescents. In phase one, the project will use think-aloud protocols and qualitative methods to identify the social and cognitive factors which moderate how students reason in response to intervention materials. In phase two, a comparative interrupted time series, focus groups with students, and video-based analyses of the teaching of the intervention will be used to identify social and cognitive variables that are potential mediators of intervention effects on racial bias. In phase three, an individually randomized trial with clustering will be used to test pre-registered mediating and/or moderating mechanisms that link the intervention to reductions in implicit and explicit racial bias. During each phase of the study, developing knowledge of the causal mechanism will be used to revise the intervention materials to make them more effective at increasing genetic literacy and reducing racial bias among adolescents.
