The impact of socioeconomic and phenotypic traits on self-perception of ethnicity in Latin America

Abstract

Self-perception of ethnicity is a complex social trait shaped by both, biological and non-biological factors. We developed a comprehensive analysis of ethnic self-perception (ESP) on a large sample of Latin American mestizos from five countries, differing in age, socio-economic and education context, external phenotypic attributes and genetic background. We measured the correlation of ESP against genomic ancestry, and the influence of physical appearance, socio-economic context, and education on the distortion observed between both. Here we show that genomic ancestry is correlated to aspects of physical appearance, which in turn affect the individual ethnic self-perceived ancestry. Also, we observe that, besides the significant correlation among genomic ancestry and ESP, specific physical or socio-economic attributes have a strong impact on self-perception. In addition, the distortion among ESP and genomic ancestry differs across age ranks/countries, probably suggesting the underlying effect of past public policies regarding identity. Our results indicate that individuals’ own ideas about its origins should be taken with caution, especially in aspects of modern life, including access to work, social policies, and public health key decisions such as drug administration, therapy design, and clinical trials, among others.

Genetic and self‐perceived ancestries in Argentina: Beyond the three‐hybrid model

“…Individuals who self‐reported Native ancestry tend to overestimate the genomic component of that origin (see Figure 2b). The same has been documented in previous works on Latin American populations, comparing individual reports in percentage values and associated genetic ancestry (Paschetta et al, 2021; Ruiz‐Linares et al, 2014). In Brazil, Santos et al (2009) explored the association between biological/genetic information and perceptions about skin color and race, and reported that the participants estimated their Native ancestry well above the levels revealed by genomic testing.…”

“…On the other hand, genetic ancestry estimates the origins relying on the inference of genetic relationships of an individual to representative members of particular human groups. A discrepancy between these two equally valid variables has already been described in Latin America (Paschetta et al, 2021;Ruiz-Linares et al, 2014). Comparing genetic and self-perceived ancestries in a population is relevant since classifications based on ancestry are now widespread in social and biomedical research, in some cases using genetic ancestry and self-reported ancestry as if they were synonyms.…”

“…Concepts like race and genetic ancestry have distinct impacts on several aspects of modern life, including access to work, social policies, and public health key decisions such as drug administration, therapy design, and clinical trials, among others (Paschetta et al, 2021). The concept of race as a classificatory criterion for analyzing the biological diversity of the human species is more and more avoided in biological anthropology studies.…”

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“…Altogether, our results may be explained by the higher presence of Italian ancestry among European descendants in our sample, as well as by the admixture of these individuals with Native Americans and Africans or afro-descendants with a higher rs12979860-T frequency, thus increasing the heterozygosity and the rs12979860-T frequency. However, it is important to consider that, despite being very useful especially in regions with recent immigration patterns , this kind of surveys must be carefully analyzed, since different social and economic aspects may influence the individual self-perceived ancestry, as it was recently reported (Paschetta et al 2021).…”

The Articulation of Genomics, Mestizaje, and Indigenous Identities in Chile: A Case Study of the Social Implications of Genomic Research in Light of Current Research Practices

“…Chilean genomic research has followed the international trends, prioritizing the genetic characterization of the national mestizo population ( Ruiz-Linares et al, 2014 ; Berrios, 2016 ; Paschetta et al, 2021 ), but also articulating genetic ancestry and ethnic identity by exploring the “origins” (i.e., ethnogenesis) of these populations ( Acuña et al, 2000 ; Fuentes et al, 2014 ; Rothhammer et al, 2017 ; Verdugo et al, 2020 ). Furthermore, genomic research in Chile has also aimed at identifying informative ancestry markers to characterize specific clusters or ethnic groups (e.g., Mapuche and Aymara), in some cases linking them to diseases ( Andia et al, 2008 ; Bermejo et al, 2017 ; Díaz-Peña et al, 2020 ; Jackson et al, 2021 ; Koenigstein et al, 2021 ).…”