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Believing in both genetic determinism and behavioral action: a materialist framework and implications

Department of Speech Communication at the University of Georgia, ccondit{at}uga.edu

Marita Gronnvoll

Department of Communication Studies at Eastern Illinois University

Jamie Landau

Department of Speech Communication at the University of Georgia

Lijiang Shen

Department of Speech Communication at the University of Georgia

Lanelle Wright

Department of Speech Communication at the University of Georgia

Tina M. Harris

Department of Speech Communication at the University of Georgia

A disparity exists between studies reporting that genetics discourse produces deterministic or fatalistic responses and studies reporting that the majority of laypeople do not hold or adopt genetically deterministic views. This article reports data from an interview study (n = 50), and an interpretation of those data grounded in materialist understandings of discourse, that explains at least part of the disparity. The article employs a detailed reading of an illustrative transcript embedded in a quantitative content analysis to suggest that laypeople have incorporated two sets of public discourses—one that describes genetic causation and another that describes behavioral causation. These different discourse tracks are presumed to be encoded in different sets of neural networks in people’s minds. Consequently, each track can be articulated upon proper cueing, but the tracks are not related to each other to produce a discourse for speaking about gene—behavior interactions. Implications for the effects of this mode of instantiation of discourse in human individuals with regard to genes and behavior are discussed, as well as implications for message design.

Key Words: genetic determinism • materialism • neural networks • public understanding of genetics

This version was published on November 1, 2009

Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 18, No. 6, 730-746 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0963662508094098


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