Change ‘race’ to: ‘social and biological ethnicity’ or ‘recent ancestral origins’ where recent means the past two to four centuries.*
Offer more options—for example, ‘humanity’ or ‘I do not identify with any ethnicity’ or ‘I do not notice pigmentation’; perhaps even ‘I object to this question’, as army1987 suggested.
If the lattermost option, I wager proffering a followup question (“Please elaborate”) would elicit enlightening answers. (60% confidence: it might not be answered at all)
Change ‘race’ to:
‘ethnicity’ or ‘pigmentation’ or ‘amount of melanin present in your epidermis’ or ‘apparent level melanocyte activity’
Not the same thing. People usually considered “black” also tend to have thicker lips, flatter noses, frizzier hair, and a heavier build than people usually considered “white”. Someone on LW once pointed an example of a person usually considered black and one usually considered white despite the latter was actually darker-skinned.
But yeah, there should be an answer for “I object to this question” or “I don’t think this applies to me” (e.g. ISTM that most people in Brazil have mixed ancestries so there are no clearly separate clusters in the distribution of such traits).
Change ‘race’ to:
‘ethnicity’ or ‘pigmentation’ or ‘amount of melanin present in your epidermis’ or ‘apparent level melanocyte activity’
Hopefully those analyzing the data will then compare the location the respondents are living, the seasonal patterns in that location at the time of the survey and also asks something about how many hours the user spends outside between 11:00 and 15:00 without adequate UVB protection.
Or you could just concluded that the amount of melanin present in the the skin is either a lost purpose or that the intended information to be gained is something you just don’t want collected for political reasons.
I’ve heard that dietary intake of carotene affects skin colour, too.
Yes, towards orange. I’ve experienced mild amounts of this with Astaxanthin (technically it’s a xanthophyll not a carotene but it is still a carotenoid and makes the skin tend towards orange in a similar manner.) Obviously this counts as ‘pigmentation’ but not the melanin-related measures.
To alter skin tone via melanin through dietary means (loosely speaking) we can use Melanotan. Unfortunately that substance was unable to get FDA approval due to the side effect of improving sexual function in both male and female humans.
Change ‘race’ to:
‘social and biological ethnicity’ or ‘recent ancestral origins’ where recent means the past two to four centuries.*
Offer more options—for example, ‘humanity’ or ‘I do not identify with any ethnicity’ or ‘I do not notice pigmentation’; perhaps even ‘I object to this question’, as army1987 suggested.
If the lattermost option, I wager proffering a followup question (“Please elaborate”) would elicit enlightening answers. (60% confidence: it might not be answered at all)
Edited in recognition of sound objections.
No, don’t.
Not the same thing. People usually considered “black” also tend to have thicker lips, flatter noses, frizzier hair, and a heavier build than people usually considered “white”. Someone on LW once pointed an example of a person usually considered black and one usually considered white despite the latter was actually darker-skinned.
But yeah, there should be an answer for “I object to this question” or “I don’t think this applies to me” (e.g. ISTM that most people in Brazil have mixed ancestries so there are no clearly separate clusters in the distribution of such traits).
Hopefully those analyzing the data will then compare the location the respondents are living, the seasonal patterns in that location at the time of the survey and also asks something about how many hours the user spends outside between 11:00 and 15:00 without adequate UVB protection.
Or you could just concluded that the amount of melanin present in the the skin is either a lost purpose or that the intended information to be gained is something you just don’t want collected for political reasons.
I’ve heard that dietary intake of carotene affects skin colour, too.
Yes, towards orange. I’ve experienced mild amounts of this with Astaxanthin (technically it’s a xanthophyll not a carotene but it is still a carotenoid and makes the skin tend towards orange in a similar manner.) Obviously this counts as ‘pigmentation’ but not the melanin-related measures.
To alter skin tone via melanin through dietary means (loosely speaking) we can use Melanotan. Unfortunately that substance was unable to get FDA approval due to the side effect of improving sexual function in both male and female humans.