Understanding of Evolution May Be Improved by Thinking about People
Understanding of Evolution May Be Improved by Thinking about People
复制标题
通过思考人可以提高对进化的理解
作者：
D. Nettle
进化论在一般人群中知之甚少，即使是那些受过一些科学教育的人。经常发生的误解部分是由于未能区分个体生物体所经历的过程和群体所经历的过程。它们之所以如此普遍，是因为我们通常用非人类动物的例子来解释进化论，而我们对动物的日常认知并不把个体与它们所属的物种区分开来。相比之下，对他人的日常认知既跟踪独特的个体，也跟踪人类的一般属性。在研究1中，我提出的实验证据表明，按物种分类发生更强烈的非人类动物比其他人在50名英国大学生。在研究2中，我表明，在相同的人口，框架的进化情景中的人产生较少的概念错误时，逻辑上相同的情况下，非人类动物的框架条款。我的结论是，如果我们从考虑我们最熟悉的生物体开始教学，公众对进化的理解可能会得到改善。
The theory of evolution is poorly understood in the population at large, even by those with some science education. The recurrent misunderstandings can be partly attributed to failure to distinguish between processes which individual organisms undergo and those which populations undergo. They may be so pervasive because we usually explain evolutionary ideas with examples from non-human animals, and our everyday cognition about animals does not track individuals as distinct from the species to which they belong. By contrast, everyday cognition about other people tracks unique individuals as well as general properties of humans. In Study 1, I present experimental evidence that categorization by species occurs more strongly for non-human animals than for other people in 50 British university students. In Study 2, I show, in the same population, that framing evolutionary scenarios in terms of people produces fewer conceptual errors than when logically identical scenarios are framed terms of non-human animals. I conclude that public understanding of evolution might be improved if we began instruction by considering the organisms which are most familiar to us.