Religious Beliefs, Knowledge about Science and Attitudes Towards Medical Genetics. Nick Allum, Elissa Sibley, Patrick Sturgis & Paul Stoneman

Transcription

1 Religius Beliefs, Knwledge abut Science and Attitudes Twards Medical Genetics Nick Allum, Elissa Sibley, Patrick Sturgis & Paul Stneman

2 Backgrund: medical genetics Genetics in medical research is ne f the mst imprtant avenues currently being explred t enhance human health. therapeutic applicatins such as Parkinsn s genetic tests that can detect r predict serius diseases that have a genetic basis such as Huntingtns. pre-implantatin genetic diagnsis (PGD) during assisted fertility treatment, t identify embrys that will give best chances fr viable pregnancy prenatal genetic testing (PGT) during pregnancy t screen the fetus fr genetic diseases and cnditins.

3 Medical genetics and public perceptin Majrities (60-70%) f publics in US and Eurpe supprt medical genetics bradly cnceived (inc. stem cell research), but less enthusiasm amngst the mst religius (e.g. Nisbet 2005, Pard and Calv 2008, H 2008) Genetics and religius bjectin? meddling with human nature at a fundamental level? Cnsequences fr embrys in PGD and PGT? Link with abrtin? Amngst psitive crrelates f supprt fr medical genetics, including stem cell research is science knwledge (e.g. Nisbet and Gidel 2007). The mre infrmed, the mre public pinin cnverges t scientific elite ratinal cnsensus?

4 Mtivated reasning Recently, wrk explaining public beliefs abut science fcusses n hw infrmatin is selectively attended t and alternate inferences drawn frm same facts. Mtivated reasning captures the idea. Leading flavurs: Brssard et al (religin as a perceptual filter fr nantech) Kahan et al cultural cgnitin f climate change and nuclear pwer (Republicans=hierarchist individualists? Demcrats egalitarians?) Main cnclusin knwledge acquired and deplyed differently by different grups cming t different interpretatins. We cntribute t this debate, deriving predictins abut hw knwledge and religisity jintly influence beliefs abut medical genetics

5 Hyptheses H1: We expect that the mre religius will be less supprtive f medical genetics. H2: We expect thse with mre science knwledge will have mre psitive attitudes twards medical genetics. H3: In line with mtivated reasning perspective, we expect that religin will mderate the assciatin f knwledge with attitudes twards genetic medicine. Specifically, we expect religin t attenuate any psitive effect f knwledge (less cnvergence t scientific cnsensus amngst religius)

6 Data and methds Wellcme Trust Mnitr Survey Triennial f2f prbability survey f 1100 adults and 300 yung peple in UK abut engagement, knwledge and attitudes t bimedicine Multistage clustered sample, CAPI interviews Respnse rate 49.3% (AAPOR RR3)

7 Data and methds Perceptins abut genetics measured with fur questins Prenatal testing Persnal predictive testing Public d it yurself r direct t cnsumer tests General ptimism abut medical genetics Simple analytic strategy regressing each f these utcmes n: Knwledge Religisity Demgraphic cvariates educatin, age, gender t accunt fr ther differences amngst religius grups likely t affect attitudes t genetics Interactin f knwledge and religisity t capture mtivated reasning/perceptual filter

8 Capturing religisity in three ways frequency f attendance at services apart frm weddings etc (dummy variable - at least nce per mnth) self identificatin as belnging t a particular rganised religin (C f E, Cathlic, nn-christian, n religin as ref categry) Beliefs abut rigins f life (dummy variable fr creatinist beliefs vs thers)

9 Distributin f science knwledge scale items

10 Origins f life by church attendance Church less than mnthly Church at least mnthly Humans and ther living things were created by Gd and have always existed in their current frm Humans and ther living things evlved ver time, in a prcess guided by Gd Humans and ther living things evlved ver time as a result f natural selectin, in which Gd played n part Sig. variatin in beliefs within and between churchging grups

11 DV1: Testing f unbrn babies Please say whether yu agree r disagree with the fllwing statement: I wuld supprt the genetic testing f unbrn babies fr any serius diseases they might get in the future, if the discvery f a serius disease culd lead t a decisin t terminate a pregnancy.

12 DV2: Public d-it-yurself tests Genetic tests are nw available directly t the public, withut a having t g thrugh a dctr r ther medical practitiner. This might be dne, fr example, by rdering a test frm a website, taking a swab and sending if ff in the pst and then receiving results directly by pst r in an . Generally speaking, please tell me whether yu think that making genetic tests available t the public in this way is a gd idea r a bad idea?

13 DV3: Take a persnal test Please say hw likely yu wuld be t take a genetic test t detect any serius disease yu might get in the future if there were treatments r ther ways f greatly reducing the risks f develping any diseases detected?

14 DV4: Optimism abut medical genetics Are yu very ptimistic abut the pssibility f medical advances as a result f genetic research, smewhat ptimistic, nt t ptimistic r nt at all ptimistic?

15 Ordered prbit mdel Ordinal items 4 r 5 pint scales Assumptin f the mdel y i * = latent index f attitude/belief abut genetics cefficients represent expected change in underlying y* fr a ne unit change in the predictr. (very similar results btained using OLS regressin t) Results...

16 Testing unbrn children (rdered prbits) Main Effects Knwledge*Religisity Other Christian Cathlic -0.24* C f E Other nn-christian Attends church => mnthly -0.34*** 0.19 Creatinist -0.18* 0.21 Science knwledge ** Female * 0.18 >= *** 0.46*** Degree Science degree Rutine ccupatin -0.17* Managerial ccupatin High incme Life begins at birth 0.32*** 0.34*** Knwledge*Creatinist Knwledge*Church attender -0.07*

17 Prbability f mst +ve respnse by religisity Test unbrn child Creatinist Service mnthly Nt creatinist..... Service less than mnthly..... Genetics ptimism Creatinist Service mnthly Nt creatinist..... Service less than mnthly.....

18 Persnal test (rdered prbits) Main Effects Knwledge*Religisity Other Christian Cathlic C f E Other nn-christian Attends church => mnthly Creatinist Science knwledge 0.05** 0.06** Female -0.15* -0.15* >= Degree Science degree Rutine ccupatin Managerial ccupatin High incme Knwledge*Creatinist 0.01 Knwledge*Church attender -0.08*

19 Prbability f mst +ve respnse by religisity Persnal test Creatinist Nt creatinist..... Service mnthly Service less than mnthly..... Public test Creatinist Nt creatinist..... Service less than mnthly..... Service mnthly

20 Public test (rdered prbits) Main Effects Knwledge*Religisity Other Christian Cathlic C f E Other nn-christian Attends church => mnthly Creatinist Science knwledge Female -0.14* -0.14* ** -0.30** >= *** -0.43*** Degree Science degree Rutine ccupatin Managerial ccupatin High incme Knwledge*Creatinist 0.00 Knwledge*Church attender 0.01

21 Genetics ptimism (rdered prbits) Main Effects Knwledge*Religisity Other Christian Cathlic C f E Other nn-christian Attends church => mnthly Creatinist -0.20* 0.15 Science knwledge 0.12*** 0.14*** Female -0.18* -0.18* >= Degree Science degree 0.61*** 0.61*** Rutine ccupatin -0.34*** -0.34*** Managerial ccupatin High incme 0.28** 0.28** Knwledge*Creatinist Knwledge*Church attender -0.01

22 Summary H1: We expected that the mre religius will be less supprtive f medical genetics. Fr prenatal testing and general ptimism, mre religius are indeed less supprtive, althugh this is frm a high baseline. H2: We expect thse with mre science knwledge will have mre psitive attitudes twards medical genetics. Yes, mst strngly fr ptimism (in line with previus research) but als fr persnal tests. Perhaps shwing mre cnfidence in understanding the issues invlved in persnal diagnstics

23 Summary H3: In line with mtivated reasning, we expected that religin wuld act as a mderatr, r perceptual filter n attitude t medical genetics Yes, fr specific applicatins that (may?) cnflict with religius rientatin but nt s much fr general ptimism abut genetics Mst strikingly, fr the highly religius, high science knwledge is assciated with lwer prbability f supprt fr prenatal testing. This is a reversal f the pattern fr ther citizens. Implicatin there will be n full cnvergence f religius views with secular ne abut prenatal testing just by enhancing the infrmatin envirnment Nte: Supprt fr medical genetics is generally high, even amngst the religius

24 Implicatins? Supprt fr medical genetics is generally high, even amngst the religius Wrldviews, cultural rientatins can and d cnditin hw knwledge and infrmatin is prcessed and deplyed t frm attitudes abut medical genetics Fr sme applicatins f genetics, generating mre understanding and public knwledge will nt persuade the highly religius t supprt. Other aspects will need t be emphasised (benefits?) Paper is under review and a draft can be btained by ing me: nallum@essex.ac.uk Thanks!