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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Sep 9.
Published in final edited form as: Genet Med. 2012 Jan 19;14(2):243–249. doi: 10.1038/gim.2011.29

Table 2.

Researcher pre-Diner and post-Diner estimates of public (adult) knowledge of genetics

Pre-Diner, mean estimatea (actual)b Post-Diner, mean estimatea (actual)b Two-tailed t statistic

1. You can see a gene just by looking at it with your eyes. 70.6% (93.9%) 72.8% (90.0%) t(38) = 0.3, ns
2. A gene is a piece of DNA. 56.0% (90.4%) 73.3% (91.3%) t(39) = 3.8, P < 0.001
3. Healthy parents can have a child with an inherited disease. 55.8% (97.6%) 67.1% (96.3%) t(39) = 2.8, P < 0.01
4. If you have a genetic risk for a certain disease, there is no way to avoid getting that disease. 49.0% (92.7%) 64.2% (93.8%) t(39) = 3.8, P < 0.001
5. Different body parts have different genes. 47.5% (64.6%) 58.2% (60.8%) t(39) = 2.5, P < 0.05
6. A gene is a disease. 60.8% (97.6%) 67.5% (94.4%) t(39) = 2.2, P < 0.05
7. Most diseases are completely caused by things in the environment. 59.3% (74.7%) 65.9% (75.0%) t(39) = 1.6, ns
8. A person’s DNA can be used to specifically identify them. 80.8% (98.8%) 82.3% (95.0%) t(39) = 0.5, ns
Average accuracy 60.0% (88.3%) 68.9% (86.9%) t(39) = 3.6, P < 0.001

ns, not significant.

a

Average researcher prediction of percentage of adults who will answer item correctly.

b

Percentage of public adult participants who correctly answered the item.