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What Happens After Surprising DNA Test Results? (bloombergquint.com)
schwit1 shared an interesting article from Bloomberg:
Though genetic tests are frequently marketed as family-friendly entertainment, they sometimes wind up surfacing life-altering surprises. And when those surprises show up in someone's test results, the first move is often a call to customer service.... At 23andMe, those types of calls are so frequent that preparing for them is integrated into the company's months-long training program.... "We always try to steer the conversation toward the data, tell them that this is science," said Kent Hillyer, head of customer care for the genetic-testing firm 23andMe...
Lindsay Grove, a customer-care representative at 23andMe, still remembers one call in particular years later, a dad who took the test only to find out that his child was not, in fact, his child. At first, like most, he was just trying to figure out whether the results were accurate. So Grove explained the science behind the data. The customer then became somber and quiet. He questioned whether he should talk to his wife, and, if he did, how.... "That process of figuring out what to do next is very difficult for customers...."
Such emotional calls can take a toll on employees, too. That's perhaps inevitable when technology interfaces with such sensitive, personal information.... At 23andMe, Hillyer often encourages representatives to go for a walk after an intense call, or cracks open a bottle of wine to help them decompress. "We kind of do these internal therapy sessions,'' he said. "Here, maybe more so than most places, you have to be really supportive of each other."
Lindsay Grove, a customer-care representative at 23andMe, still remembers one call in particular years later, a dad who took the test only to find out that his child was not, in fact, his child. At first, like most, he was just trying to figure out whether the results were accurate. So Grove explained the science behind the data. The customer then became somber and quiet. He questioned whether he should talk to his wife, and, if he did, how.... "That process of figuring out what to do next is very difficult for customers...."
Such emotional calls can take a toll on employees, too. That's perhaps inevitable when technology interfaces with such sensitive, personal information.... At 23andMe, Hillyer often encourages representatives to go for a walk after an intense call, or cracks open a bottle of wine to help them decompress. "We kind of do these internal therapy sessions,'' he said. "Here, maybe more so than most places, you have to be really supportive of each other."
Ask them, both 23andme and Ancestry have admitted to skewing results such that people almost always get results indicating mixed ancestry.
It's been a bit of a problem in their community since a sizable chunk of their leadership's been forced out by it.
Who has been forced out? Do you have a citation?
According to PBS, alt-right groups do not cast out people with "non-white" DNA. They instead question the validity of the results, and there are conspiracy theories that the DNA labs are telling many people that their DNA is "mixed" to push their liberal agenda that "we are all the same".
Also, they may not be as bigoted as you think. The founder of the Aryan Brotherhood is a Jew.
Disclaimer: I am white, but my wife and kids are not.
My sister had my dad tested since although we're stereotypically Asian, our family's eyes are slightly rounder. She thought we might have a European ancestor somewhere in our genealogy. The test results came back 50% Hungarian, 40% Scandinavian. The biggest Asian component was 0.6% Japanese. Our best guess is the sample was contaminated, or they accidentally swapped with someone else's sample. But the company insisted they were accurate and that they never made mistakes.
I feel really sorry for people whose lives might be turned upside down by an erroneous test result, because they believe a company which is trying to preserve the marketability of their product by insisting they can't make mistakes. Given that 23andMe claims 5 million users, even a 99.99% accuracy rate means 500 customers were given erroneous results.
Which leads to question that I never saw asked in the reporting of this story: How did the 23&me staff know about the racist attitudes of their customers?
I got the opposite results of what many white supremacists nutcases are getting, according to 23andMe I'm 100.0% white European (my family were peasant stock from central European going back forever). I actually wanted to have some interesting mixed blood, but it's just completely boring central European monoculture. Maybe I should sell my DNA to the mixed-race white supremacists...