Abstract
BackgroundEvolutionary thinking is traditionally directly related to education and inversely to religiosity. Accordingly, biology students are naturally expected to be more prone to naturalist evolution due to their close contact with this theory and high scientific literacy. To test this, we performed a cross-national study surveying biology students’ evolutionary opinions in Brazil, contrasting the proportions of creationism (Cr), divinely guided evolution (DGE) and naturalist evolution (NaE).ResultsWe found that NaE comprised 44.4%, DGE 43.3%, and Cr 12.3% of students’ opinions. NaE was higher among postgraduate than undergraduate students. There were marked geographic differences, with NaE peaking in the most socioeconomically developed regions and Cr in the less. Opinions related to divine influence as a whole (Cr + DGE) became more likely as the score of students’ institutions decreased (i.e. institutions with lower-quality standards).ConclusionsMost biology students paradoxically do not have NaE as an explanation (55.6%), a high proportion given their presumed contact with the theory. We demonstrate that socioeconomic and institution quality factors are apparently important in determining the evolutionary thinking patterns. NaE paucity among biology students may also be influenced by low scientific literacy and the extreme religiosity of the population, which incorporates divine influence in students’ opinions long before they have any contact with evolutionary theory.
Highlights
Evolutionary thinking is traditionally directly related to education and inversely to religiosity
Opinions frequency differed according to geographical macroregion (χ2 = 132.80, df = 52, P = 0.003; Fig. 2a), in which Cr and divinely guided evolution (DGE) increased northwards at the expense of naturalist evolution (NaE), which reached its peak in the regions further south
In this study, we found that the majority of biology students paradoxically do not have NaE as an explanation, despite having presumed contact with the theory
Summary
Evolutionary thinking is traditionally directly related to education and inversely to religiosity. Naturalist evolutionary theory is one of the most robust and important in history, without being credibly falsified so far (Gould 2002; Mayr 2007; Scott 2009). It provides a materialist interpretation of issues such as the diversification, interrelatedness, and distribution of life on Earth. Evolutionary theory has been continuously supported by science, including natural selection, adaptation, selfish selection, mutations, genetic variation, gene flow, genetic drift, competition, fitness, extinction, and fossil record, offering a high explanatory and predictive power of natural processes (Gould 2002; Mayr 2007; Scott 2009)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
