ArticleSocial psychology of education : an international journal2021
Pygmalion in the Genes? On the potentially negative impacts of polygenic scores for educational attainment.
Article in Social psychology of education : an international journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Schoolhouse risk: Can we mitigate the polygenic Pygmalion effect?Acta psychologica · 2024Trial
- Perceptions of Polygenic Scores for Medical and Social Traits Among Biobank Participants and the Public.Biopreservation and biobanking · 2026Article
- Ethical Priorities Among Commercial Genomics Professionals : Survey Evidence Highlighting Diversity, Fragmented Privacy Law, and Human Rights Risks as Central Participant Concerns.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2026Article
- No Argument with Biology? The Effects of Genetic Explanations for Socioeconomic Outcomes on American and Swedish Citizens' Attitudes Towards Government Intervention.Behavior genetics · 2026Article
- Social and Behavioral Genomics: On the Ethics of the Research and Its Downstream Applications.Annual review of genomics and human genetics · 2025Review
- The Geneticization of Education and Its Bioethical Implications.Cambridge quarterly of healthcare ethics : CQ : the international journal of healthcare ethics committees · 2024Article
- Psychiatric polygenic risk scores: Experience, hope for utility, and concerns among child and adolescent psychiatrists.Psychiatry research · 2024Article
- Social and Behavioral Genomics: What Does It Mean for Pediatrics?The Journal of pediatrics · 2024Article
- Infrastructuring Educational Genomics: Associations, Architectures, and Apparatuses.Postdigital science and education · 2024Article
- The value of intersectionality for genomic research on human behavior.Genetics in medicine : official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics · 2023Article
- Wrestling with Social and Behavioral Genomics: Risks, Potential Benefits, and Ethical Responsibility.The Hastings Center report · 2023Article
- Ethical, anticipatory genomics research on human behavior means celebrating disagreement.HGG advances · 2022Review
- Scanning the Horizon of Sociogenomics: an Assessment of the Development and Growth of Polygenic Indices for Social and Behavioral Traits.AJOB empirical bioethicsReview
- "Ethical Responsibility Very Often Gets Drowned Out": A Qualitative Interview Study of Genome Scientists' and ELSI Scholars' Perspectives on the Role and Relevance of ELSI Expertise.AJOB empirical bioethicsArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Polygenic scores for educational attainment and related variables, such as IQ and "mathematical ability" are now readily available via direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies. Some researchers are even proposing the use of genetic tests in educational settings via "precision education," in which individualized student education plans would be tailored to polygenic scores. The potential psychosocial impacts of polygenic scores for traits and outcomes relevant to education, however, have not been assessed. In online experiments, we asked participants to imagine hypothetical situations in which they or their classmates had recently received polygenic scores for educational attainment. Participants prompted to answer multi-choice questions as though they had received their own low-percentile score, compared to a control condition, scored significantly lower on measures of self-esteem and of self-perceived competence, academic efficacy, and educational potential. Similarly, those asked to evaluate a hypothetical classmate as though the classmate had received a low-percentile score attributed significantly lower academic efficacy and educational potential, compared to a control condition. Through possible mechanisms of stigma and self-fulfilling prophecies, our results highlight the potential psychosocial harms of exposure to low-percentile polygenic scores for educational attainment.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.