More broadly, our results contribute to a small body of research demonstrating just how little it takes, when it comes to introducing information about genetics, to trigger divisive racial beliefs and attitudes. To illustrate, there is a second important finding from our survey experiment that we have not emphasized. In addition to the Backdoor Vignette, our Race-as-Genetic-Reality Vignette also increased belief in essential racial differences when compared to the Race-as-Social-Construction Vignette and the no-vignette control condition. Similarly, Williams and Eberhardt (2008) found that reading an article titled “Scientists Pinpoint Genetic Underpinnings of Race” significantly influenced racial attitudes and beliefs. These vignettes represent an increasingly common approach taken by geneticists to the issue of racial variation—an approach that examines genetic variation based on continent of origin and has reported a correspondence between genetic clustering by continent and traditionally defined racial groups (Nassir et al. 2009; Risch et al. 2002). Although we are concerned about the effects of such messages, we are less concerned than we are about the backdoor effects we focused on here. The Race-as-Genetic-Reality Vignette—like Hernstein and Murray’s (1994)
