New open-access resource counters misinformation on genomics studies of human behavior

摘要

2021 SEP 21 (NewsRx) - By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Disease Prevention Daily - New research on the genomic influences on traits such as intelligence, household income, and sexual behavior captures public attention, but it is also used to justify beliefs in racial and social inequalities. To counter bias and other misinformation, The Hastings Center announces an open-access repository that aggregates and enhances FAQs - frequently asked questions - by the genomics researchers themselves that explain what their studies do, and do not, show. The current issue of Nature Genetics features an article on the resource written by the scholars who created it: Daphne Oluwaseun Martschenko, a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics; Lucas J. Matthews, an assistant professor of bioethics at Columbia University and a presidential scholar at The Hastings Center; Benjamin W. Dominique, an assistant professor in the Stanford Graduate School of Education; and Sam Trejo, an assistant professor of sociology at Princeton University. "As scholars motivated by deep concern about the long history of misuse of genetic research, we believe these FAQs are socially responsible, commendable exemplars of science communication for both experts and general audiences," the authors state in an introduction to the repository.