Participants were randomly assigned to read one of three mock newspaper articles or no article. All three vignettes represent messages about race and genetics that have risen from the genomic revolution and that have been prominent in scientific and public media discourse (see Duster 2003a; Risch et al. 2002; Schwartz 2001). The vignette of primary interest—the Backdoor Vignette—describes a genetic variant that is more strongly associated with heart attack in African Americans than in white Americans. This vignette was constructed with features that would most strongly test Duster’s hypothesis. We wish to evaluate whether an article that makes no mention of essential racial differences nevertheless increases belief in such differences. Accordingly, the vignette clearly endorses the idea of a genetically based racial difference in a serious health outcome but makes no statements about more general genetic differences between racial groups. Also key for a backdoor message, the vignette has no apparent ideological or persuasive content. If this vignette elevates beliefs in essential differences between racial groups, Duster’s hypothesis will be supported more strongly than if the vignette contained content that directly suggested essential differences between racial groups.
