Not red in tooth and claw: Teaching evolution with conflict reduction practices increases acceptance

Students in biology classes accepted the theory of evolution more often when it was taught with conflict-reducing practices, including an emphasis on religious compatibility and autonomy, according to a study published December 4, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Rahmi Ourota Aini and Elizabeth Barnes from Middle Tennessee State University, U.S., and colleagues.

Evolution is of the foundation of biology, but currently half of the United States population rejects the idea of human evolution. One of the most important factors in the acceptance of evolution is perceived conflict between evolution and a student’s religious beliefs.

The authors of this study surveyed 6,719 college biology students in 55 courses and 14 states. In addition to assessing religiosity, they asked the students for their experiences of an instructor teaching evolution with conflict-reducing practices. For example, instructors could offer compatibility between evolution and religion, offering examples of religious leaders who accept evolution or scientists who are religious. Instructors could also reduce conflict by emphasizing the autonomy of the students—noting that it is their choice whether to accept evolution or not.

Highly religious Christian students were more likely to accept evolution when instructors emphasized the compatibility of evolution and religion. However, all students, regardless of whether they were religious or not, were more likely to accept human evolution when instructors emphasized that it was their choice to do so.

While the instructors and classes were self-selected for the study, the results suggest that conflict resolution strategies like emphasizing compatibility between religion and evolution and a student’s autonomy can increase students’ acceptance of evolution.

The authors add: “This study reinforces a growing number of research studies showing that conflict between religion and evolution is often unnecessary. College instructors can play an important role in bridging the divide. By adopting practices that reduce perceived conflict, our findings suggest that more students and the broader public can come to embrace evolution, the cornerstone of the biological sciences.”

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0313490

Citation: Aini RQ, Supriya K, Dunlop H, Edwards B, Maas S, Roberts J, et al. (2024) Conflict reducing practices in evolution education are associated with increases in evolution acceptance in a large naturalistic study. PLoS ONE 19(12): e0313490. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313490

Author Countries: U.S.

Funding: This study is funded by National Science Foundation #1818659. The funders had role in data collection.