Genetic ancestry test users 'cherry-pick' which races to identify with

[firemonkey]

Genetic ancestry tests are often advertised as a tool to uncover new connections to diverse cultures and ancestries, but new research from the University of British Columbia has found people tend to pick and choose which races they identify with based on preconceived biases.

Ancestry testing is part of a rapidly growing, billion-dollar industry that claims to use DNA to tell people about the parts of the world from which their ancestors originated. In research published this week in the American Journal of Sociology, sociologists found that, rather than embrace all their test results, people who use genetic ancestry tests tend to selectively identify with ethnicities they view as positive while disregarding others.


https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-06/uobc-gat062818.php

[rein]

Sounds like bull to me.

[Tacitus]

People (specifically Americans of mixed ancestry) do that even without taking genetic tests. Nothing new under the sun.

[firemonkey]

For me it is very difficult to know what to identify with outside of my predominantly British ancestry due to disparities when it comes to minor ancestries among the testing companies. For example some give Finnish while others don't. Some give me East Med area/Cypriot while others don't. Then there's some indicator of possible Scandinavian. Then there is the issue of levels of minor ancestry which may be true but at much smaller amounts than stated. For example I very much doubt I have the 4-10% Cypriot/East Med/Med islander suggested by Dna land/Dna tribes/Gencove/Geneplaza and Xcode. I think it's very easy to be sceptical about a possible ancestry when the percentages estimated just seem too high.

[Leto]

For me it is very difficult to know what to identify with outside of my predominantly British ancestry due to disparities when it comes to minor ancestries among the testing companies. For example some give Finnish while others don't. Some give me East Med area/Cypriot while others don't. Then there's some indicator of possible Scandinavian. Then there is the issue of levels of minor ancestry which may be true but at much smaller amounts than stated. For example I very much doubt I have the 4-10% Cypriot/East Med/Med islander suggested by Dna land/Dna tribes/Gencove/Geneplaza and Xcode. I think it's very easy to be sceptical about a possible ancestry when the percentages estimated just seem too high.
You're a quintessential boomer, sir. Uncomfortable in his own white skin, with his supposedly "boring" British heritage and wanting to discover at least a tiny bit of something supposedly "diverse" in himself. One of the countless sad examples of how postmodernism has basically ruined the West.

[oszkar07]

For me it is very difficult to know what to identify with outside of my predominantly British ancestry due to disparities when it comes to minor ancestries among the testing companies. For example some give Finnish while others don't. Some give me East Med area/Cypriot while others don't. Then there's some indicator of possible Scandinavian. Then there is the issue of levels of minor ancestry which may be true but at much smaller amounts than stated. For example I very much doubt I have the 4-10% Cypriot/East Med/Med islander suggested by Dna land/Dna tribes/Gencove/Geneplaza and Xcode. I think it's very easy to be sceptical about a possible ancestry when the percentages estimated just seem too high.

I agree its no suprise as OP article points out people will be selective about preferred ethnicities.
I sometimes even suspiciously wonder if companies might throw in small % of exotic result to make people feel more interesting lol.
Either way in any case I think its always the majority rules principle , simply speaking the largest percentages that are always the most consistant on a number of calculators are the ones that are most likely representative of any persons predominant background.
It can be a bit weird for people who are an exact half mix of 2 different ethnicities because often calculators can give strange results that try to interpret 1 ethnicity modelled from mixture of 2.
But of course it can be broken down to more simplistic basic regional identity. eg someone predominatly NW euro or south or east etc.
From your results FireMonkey , you appear to be predominatly genetically British, I imagine that would be your main identity also. If you happen to have small % of distant east med cypriot or sardinian , it wont change the fact you are predominatly British.