An exploratory study of the impact of news headlines on genetic determinism

Critics have suggested that news headlines about generics with inappropriat ely deterministic content will produce increased levels of determinism in t he public er en when news article contents are not highly deterministic. Th is might result from a replacement effect (headlines stand in for the conte nt of the article because few people read it fully) or from framing effect (headlines frame the interpretation of the article content). A quantitative e impact study and an interview method were used to rest the impact of the framing effect in a news article on genes and diabetes. This exploratory s tudy found no support for a framing effect. Directions for future research are discussed.