WHAT DOES AMERICA THINK? 553harm. White respondents were significantly more likely to say that, as were respon-
dents in the middle and upper classes.
2.If you or your partner was pregnant, would you want her to have a test to find
out if the baby had any serious genetic defects?Sixty-six percent of respondents
said they would have genetic testing done on their fetus. White respondents were
more likely than Black respondents to say so. Social class differences were not large,
but those in the lower class and the upper class were more likely to say they would
have their fetus tested.CRITICAL THINKING|DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- White respondents were more likely than Black respondents to say genetic testing does more
good than harm, yet Black respondents were more likely to say they would have their fetus
tested for genetic abnormalities. What might explain this apparent discrepancy? - Social class differences in responses were striking. Like the responses broken down by race, the
social class differences do not seem to make sense on the surface. How do you explain them?
3 Go to this website to look further at the data. You can run your own statistics and crosstabs
here: http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/hsda?harcsda+gss04
REFERENCES:Davis, James A., Tom W. Smith, and Peter V. Marsden. General Social Surveys
1972–2004: [Cumulative file] [Computer file]. 2nd ICPSR version. Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research
Center [producer], 2005; Storrs, CT: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut;
Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research; Berkeley, CA: Computer-Assisted
Survey Methods Program, University of California [distributors], 2005.