6. Investigating the Societal Impacts of Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing, and its Relationship to Mortality Salience, Attraction to Legacy and Attraction to Leisure

Abstract


 Homo sapiens are the only species that are aware that one’s life is impermanent, and that responds to that awareness with anxiety. Adaptive anxiety buffers include delusion through ‘legacy drive’ and ‘leisure drive’, which have been proposed as fundamental components in defining the evolutionary roots of human nature and sociocultural evolution. This study evaluates how legacy and leisure drive are impacted by mortality salience and ideas of genetic testing, and analyzes advancements in genomic technology and its societal implications. In this project, indicators of variation in legacy drive and leisure drive, due to mortality salience and genetic testing priming, were assessed based on participant responses (n=1449) from faculty and students at Queen’s University in an online survey. Direct-to-consumer personal genome testing is poised to usher in a new era of medicine through empowering individuals to learn and understand their own genetic make-up. Behavioural changes between sexes were evaluated in terms of Darwinian theory. This was assessed in conjunction with domains of legacy and connected with participant responses to recent and expanding opportunities for genomic testing—including in the context of so-called ‘designer babies—with potential for playing a role in modulating the evolution of humans both biologically and culturally. Results will be used to test for relationships between variation in demographic/gender traits and preferences associated with mortality awareness, and domains of legacy and leisure. Preliminary investigation reveals that mortality salience is positively correlated with both leisure and legacy drive. Further analysis of results will be presented at the conference.