Public Science
Our current projects:
Developing and teaching curriculum to reduce genetic essentialism in college classrooms
Project leads: Kathryn F. Malerbi
Major collaborators: Andy Brubaker, Monica Weindling, Brian M. Donovan
Objective: We carefully describe the original Humane Genomics Literacy (HGL) curriculum in terms of content and the unique pedagogical practices that the curriculum includes. Then, we discuss how to adapt the curriculum for the college classroom. We aim to provide a guide for genetics educators who are interested in using HGL in their own college classrooms.
Summary: Genetic essentialism is a social-cognitive prejudice involving the belief that people of the same race share genes that make them behaviorally, physically, and cognitively uniform and also genetically distinct from other other races. It can be exacerbated by a basic, Mendelian-based genetics and biology education in the United States. To combat this phenomenon, the Humane Genomics Literacy curriculum was developed. Shown to be highly effective in several randomized control trials to date, HGL aims to both increase students’ understanding of population genetics and multifactorial inheritance and to reduce beliefs in genetic essentialism using evidence from scientific studies. HGL instruction is specifically focused on using science to help students gain a less gene-centric understanding of racial group differences.
How and for whom can genetics education reduce beliefs in genetic essentialism?
Project leads: Yeongmi Jeong
Major collaborators: Andy Brubaker, Brian M. Donovan, Monica Weindling
Objective: We examine how and for whom genetics education can reduce genetic essentialist beliefs using targeted interventions and data from a randomized control trial collected at a large US west coast public university in 2023, including 2,061 undergraduate students. By conducting this research, we aim to offer evidence-based strategies for designing educational curriculum that counteract genetic essentialism.
Summary: Genetic essentialism—the belief that complex traits and racial group differences are primarily determined by genetics—remains a persistent misconception, overlooking environmental and social influences. To address this, we conducted a randomized controlled trial with 2,061 undergraduates at a large U.S. West Coast university in 2023. Students were assigned to one of three curriculum-based interventions—Population Thinking, Multifactorial Causation, or the combined Humane Genetics Curriculum—or to a climate change control. Structural equation modeling showed that all three interventions significantly reduced essentialist beliefs by lowering perceptions of between-group racial variation and genetic attributions, with stronger effects among students with higher baseline genetics knowledge.
