BIAS-
Accepting Evolution and Rejecting Racism.
A study links rejection of evolutionary theory to racial prejudice.
Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
KEY POINTS-
Research suggests that rejection of evolution is linked to social prejudices.
In the past, Darwinism was used to justify social hierarchies.
Today, belief in evolutionary theory may be connected to acceptance of groups other than one's own.
When Darwin proposed his theory that asserted that humans share a common ancestry with other animals through an evolutionary process, a common rebuttal claimed that there needed to be a creature who stood between humans and apes. No such fossil had yet been uncovered, they said, thereby disproving the theory of evolution.
"Missing Links"
Since the publication of Origin of the Species in 1859, many “missing links” in fact have been uncovered, including the early 21st-century discovery of Australothecus sediba and, more recently, the uncovering of the remains of an archaic human in Israel. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Svante Paabo, demonstrated by comparing the genomes of different human species "that modern humans split from the more archaic humans about 550,000 to 760,000 years ago, and the Neanderthals and Denisovans split into distinct groups 380,000 to 470,000 years ago."
Darwin’s theory has been refined over a century—he wrote before science understood the role of genetics in inheritance, for example. Yet, the essential insight of his theory remains: Human beings evolved over eons and share a common ancestry tree with apes, other now-distinct hominoids, and indeed with all of life on Earth.
However, there are many who reject evolution as a fact of nature. In a 2018 survey, 40 percent of Americans said they believed that Homo sapiens were created about 10,000 years ago in their present form.
Study of Evolutional Theory and Social Prejudice
In an article published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Stylianos Syropoulos, at the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and colleagues wanted to go beyond the profiles of respondents in the Gallup poll. They hypothesized that there was a correlation between those who reject evolutionary theory and social prejudice as well as intergroup hostility. Across samples from 45 countries involving tens of thousands of people, they found the following:
low belief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes, and support for discriminatory behaviors against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ), Blacks, and immigrants in the United States [and] greater prejudice and militaristic attitudes toward political outgroups.
Syropoulos explains,
People who perceive themselves as more similar to animals are also people who tend to have more pro-social or positive attitudes toward outgroup members or people from stigmatized and marginalized backgrounds. In this investigation, we were interested in examining whether belief in evolution would also act in a similar way, because it would reinforce this belief that we are more similar to animals.
Interestingly, the findings are the reverse of what some feared when Darwin’s theories first gained popularity. Darwinism was misunderstood and abused by Social Darwinists who rationalized their own success no matter how ruthlessly gotten by saying it was the "survival of the fittest." Happily, today, instead of unleashing the worst in those who view humanity as continuous with other primates, a belief in evolution is correlated with compassion, acceptance of those outside one’s own group, and less violent resolutions to conflict.
Why the correlation exists is a complex question, and whether there is a cause and effect is equally difficult to determine. The rejection of evolution may be a proxy for other factors, although researchers did control for several, including gender and religion. Other factors not yet identified may turn out to be causal.
In any case, the evidence does point in a consistent direction: A more generous and kind view of others is linked to an acceptance of evolution and the interconnectedness of all humanity to the natural world.
Accepting Evolution and Rejecting Racism.
A study links rejection of evolutionary theory to racial prejudice.
Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
KEY POINTS-
Research suggests that rejection of evolution is linked to social prejudices.
In the past, Darwinism was used to justify social hierarchies.
Today, belief in evolutionary theory may be connected to acceptance of groups other than one's own.
When Darwin proposed his theory that asserted that humans share a common ancestry with other animals through an evolutionary process, a common rebuttal claimed that there needed to be a creature who stood between humans and apes. No such fossil had yet been uncovered, they said, thereby disproving the theory of evolution.
"Missing Links"
Since the publication of Origin of the Species in 1859, many “missing links” in fact have been uncovered, including the early 21st-century discovery of Australothecus sediba and, more recently, the uncovering of the remains of an archaic human in Israel. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Svante Paabo, demonstrated by comparing the genomes of different human species "that modern humans split from the more archaic humans about 550,000 to 760,000 years ago, and the Neanderthals and Denisovans split into distinct groups 380,000 to 470,000 years ago."
Darwin’s theory has been refined over a century—he wrote before science understood the role of genetics in inheritance, for example. Yet, the essential insight of his theory remains: Human beings evolved over eons and share a common ancestry tree with apes, other now-distinct hominoids, and indeed with all of life on Earth.
However, there are many who reject evolution as a fact of nature. In a 2018 survey, 40 percent of Americans said they believed that Homo sapiens were created about 10,000 years ago in their present form.
Study of Evolutional Theory and Social Prejudice
In an article published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Stylianos Syropoulos, at the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and colleagues wanted to go beyond the profiles of respondents in the Gallup poll. They hypothesized that there was a correlation between those who reject evolutionary theory and social prejudice as well as intergroup hostility. Across samples from 45 countries involving tens of thousands of people, they found the following:
low belief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes, and support for discriminatory behaviors against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ), Blacks, and immigrants in the United States [and] greater prejudice and militaristic attitudes toward political outgroups.
Syropoulos explains,
People who perceive themselves as more similar to animals are also people who tend to have more pro-social or positive attitudes toward outgroup members or people from stigmatized and marginalized backgrounds. In this investigation, we were interested in examining whether belief in evolution would also act in a similar way, because it would reinforce this belief that we are more similar to animals.
Interestingly, the findings are the reverse of what some feared when Darwin’s theories first gained popularity. Darwinism was misunderstood and abused by Social Darwinists who rationalized their own success no matter how ruthlessly gotten by saying it was the "survival of the fittest." Happily, today, instead of unleashing the worst in those who view humanity as continuous with other primates, a belief in evolution is correlated with compassion, acceptance of those outside one’s own group, and less violent resolutions to conflict.
Why the correlation exists is a complex question, and whether there is a cause and effect is equally difficult to determine. The rejection of evolution may be a proxy for other factors, although researchers did control for several, including gender and religion. Other factors not yet identified may turn out to be causal.
In any case, the evidence does point in a consistent direction: A more generous and kind view of others is linked to an acceptance of evolution and the interconnectedness of all humanity to the natural world.
BIAS-
Accepting Evolution and Rejecting Racism.
A study links rejection of evolutionary theory to racial prejudice.
Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
KEY POINTS-
Research suggests that rejection of evolution is linked to social prejudices.
In the past, Darwinism was used to justify social hierarchies.
Today, belief in evolutionary theory may be connected to acceptance of groups other than one's own.
When Darwin proposed his theory that asserted that humans share a common ancestry with other animals through an evolutionary process, a common rebuttal claimed that there needed to be a creature who stood between humans and apes. No such fossil had yet been uncovered, they said, thereby disproving the theory of evolution.
"Missing Links"
Since the publication of Origin of the Species in 1859, many “missing links” in fact have been uncovered, including the early 21st-century discovery of Australothecus sediba and, more recently, the uncovering of the remains of an archaic human in Israel. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Svante Paabo, demonstrated by comparing the genomes of different human species "that modern humans split from the more archaic humans about 550,000 to 760,000 years ago, and the Neanderthals and Denisovans split into distinct groups 380,000 to 470,000 years ago."
Darwin’s theory has been refined over a century—he wrote before science understood the role of genetics in inheritance, for example. Yet, the essential insight of his theory remains: Human beings evolved over eons and share a common ancestry tree with apes, other now-distinct hominoids, and indeed with all of life on Earth.
However, there are many who reject evolution as a fact of nature. In a 2018 survey, 40 percent of Americans said they believed that Homo sapiens were created about 10,000 years ago in their present form.
Study of Evolutional Theory and Social Prejudice
In an article published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Stylianos Syropoulos, at the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and colleagues wanted to go beyond the profiles of respondents in the Gallup poll. They hypothesized that there was a correlation between those who reject evolutionary theory and social prejudice as well as intergroup hostility. Across samples from 45 countries involving tens of thousands of people, they found the following:
low belief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes, and support for discriminatory behaviors against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ), Blacks, and immigrants in the United States [and] greater prejudice and militaristic attitudes toward political outgroups.
Syropoulos explains,
People who perceive themselves as more similar to animals are also people who tend to have more pro-social or positive attitudes toward outgroup members or people from stigmatized and marginalized backgrounds. In this investigation, we were interested in examining whether belief in evolution would also act in a similar way, because it would reinforce this belief that we are more similar to animals.
Interestingly, the findings are the reverse of what some feared when Darwin’s theories first gained popularity. Darwinism was misunderstood and abused by Social Darwinists who rationalized their own success no matter how ruthlessly gotten by saying it was the "survival of the fittest." Happily, today, instead of unleashing the worst in those who view humanity as continuous with other primates, a belief in evolution is correlated with compassion, acceptance of those outside one’s own group, and less violent resolutions to conflict.
Why the correlation exists is a complex question, and whether there is a cause and effect is equally difficult to determine. The rejection of evolution may be a proxy for other factors, although researchers did control for several, including gender and religion. Other factors not yet identified may turn out to be causal.
In any case, the evidence does point in a consistent direction: A more generous and kind view of others is linked to an acceptance of evolution and the interconnectedness of all humanity to the natural world.
Chinese
Arabic
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Deutsch
Turkish
Dutch
Italiano
Russian
Romaian
Portuguese (Brazil)
Greek