An Exploratory Study of the Impact of News Headlines on Genetic Determinism

Abstract

Critics have suggested that news headlines about genetics with inappropriately deterministic content will produce increased levels of determinism in the public, even when news article contents are not highly deterministic. This might result from a replacement effect (headlines stand in for the content of the article because few people read it fully) or from a framing effect (headlines frame the interpretation of the article content). A quantitative impact study and an interview method were used to test the impact of the framing effect in a news article on genes and diabetes. This exploratory study found no support for a framing effect. Directions for future research are discussed.