Abstract
Studies of the U.S. general public have demonstrated that acceptance of evolution is a function of both religion and education. To test if this is true of natural history museum patrons as well, we conducted a survey of visitors to the Milwaukee Public Museum. We hypothesized that education and religion represented separate pathways in the acceptance of evolution. Measures included the MATE scale of evolution acceptance, as well as questions about religious denomination, frequency of religious service attendance, educational attainment and knowledge of evolutionary terms. The survey was administered to visitors of the Milwaukee Public Museum during the summer of 2013. A total of 203 museum goers completed the entire survey. We analyzed the data using chi square, analysis of variance, and general linear models. We found that, on average, museum patrons scored high on acceptance of evolution. Religious denomination or frequency of church attendance was not related to educational attainment. In bivariate analyses, Christian affiliation was associated with lower acceptance of evolution, with nondenominational Christians showing the lowest level of acceptance. Educational attainment, but not religious denomination was related to knowledge of evolutionary terms. In a multivariate model, knowledge of evolutionary terms was predicted by education and religious denomination. In a similar model, acceptance of evolution was predicted by education, religious denomination, frequency of church attendance and knowledge of evolutionary terms. Our results are consistent with previous findings in U.S. samples demonstrating that religious denomination, religiosity and education are predictors of evolutionary acceptance among adults. In addition, they confirm our hypothesis that religion and education represent largely distinct pathways in the acceptance of evolution. The major impact of religious denomination is on the acceptance, not knowledge of evolution. These results focus attention on understanding what processes allow religious fundamentalists to block the conversion of knowledge about evolution into evolutionary acceptance.
Highlights
Studies of the U.S general public have demonstrated that acceptance of evolution is a function of both religion and education
Respondents were nearly evenly divided between the greater Milwaukee area, the rest of Wisconsin and the rest of the U.S with only a handful (3) from outside the U.S Because this survey was focused on acceptance of evolution in the U.S, these three individuals were removed from further analyses
The results presented here indicate that religious affiliation, church attendance and educational attainment are predictors of evolutionary acceptance in a museum-going population, consistent with previous findings regarding predictors of evolution acceptance among the U.S general population (Heddy and Nadelson 2012, Mazur 2004) Previous studies of museum patrons have found that museum visitors tend to be more accepting of evolution than the general public (Spiegel et al 2006, Stein and Storksdieck 2005), yet even with the high MATE scores exhibited in our data, predictors of knowledge and acceptance of evolution are similar to other populations (Heddy and Nadelson 2012, Mazur 2004)
Summary
Studies of the U.S general public have demonstrated that acceptance of evolution is a function of both religion and education. Acceptance of evolution, one of the foundations of modern science, is lower in the U.S than in all but one of 34 industrialized countries (Miller et al 2006). Acceptance of evolution has been connected to levels of education and economic development as well as level of religiosity (defined as the importance of religion in one’s daily life) (Heddy and Nadelson 2012). Variation in GDP per capita by state was significantly related to religiosity (negatively), educational attainment (positively), and evolution acceptance (positively). Economic development appears to influence the acceptance of evolution through its association with education and religiosity, at least within the relatively narrow range of economic development represented by state-level differences within the United States
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