Standard Research Grant: Probing Public Understanding and Acceptance of Evolution

这个项目的目的是更全面地了解美国人对进化论的了解，他们在多大程度上接受这一理论，以及是什么解释了他们的信仰和接受程度。因此，该项目有可能对重要的社会问题产生巨大影响，例如生物教育方面的冲突。了解进化生物学的抗性的性质和来源不仅对于改变公共对话，而且对于改变公共对话的框架方式都至关重要。私人投资机构致力于传播这一项目的成果，以便让参与科学政策以及正规和非正规科学教育的人了解这些成果。为此，他们将为加州大学古生物学博物馆(为教师提供教案和其他资源)的理解进化项目贡献材料和审查材料，进行公开讲座，领导教师专业发展研讨会，并为政策期刊《科学进展》撰写文章。在项目的每个阶段，来自宾夕法尼亚大学不同学生群体的至少四名本科生研究助理也将参与该项目。技术总结个人调查建议对公众对进化的知识和态度进行系统调查。这个项目将通过首先进行一系列初步调查来探讨公众对进化论的理解和接受的问题，重点是人们对进化论的各个方面的了解，他们接受这些方面的程度，以及任何系统地影响他们理解和接受的人口因素。这些调查将询问他们在多大程度上欣赏基因修饰的血统，他们对系统发育关系的推理能力，以及他们是否优先接受适应性解释。然后，这些调查的结果将被用来构建一份单一的问卷，该问卷将被管理给一个由1000名美国公民组成的具有人口统计学代表性的小组。此外，调查主任亦会有针对性地访问接受进化论而不了解进化论的人士，以及不接受进化论的人士，以深入了解有关进化论的误解的来源。PI将调查几个关于美国人为什么拒绝接受进化论的假设。使用相同的程序，PI将开发第二个调查工具，该工具将被管理给第二个人口统计平衡的美国人小组。这两项调查的结果加在一起，将产生有史以来收集到的关于美国人进化观的最精炼的数据。

General Audience Summary The purpose of this project is to gain a fuller picture of what people in the United States know about the theory of evolution, to what extent they accept this theory, and what explains their beliefs and their degree of acceptance. The project thus has the potential to make a huge impact on important social issues, such as conflicts over biology education. Understanding the nature and source of resistance to evolutionary biology is critical for changing not only public dialogue, but also the way in which public dialogue is framed. The PIs are committed to disseminating the findings of this project so that they will reach those involved in science policy and in formal and informal science education. They will do so by contributing materials to and reviewing materials for the Understanding Evolution project at the University of California Museum of Paleontology (which provides lesson plans and other resources to teachers), giving public lectures, leading professional development workshops for teachers, and writing articles for the policy journal Science Progress. The PIs will also involve at least four undergraduate research assistants from Penn's diverse student body in every stage of the project.Technical Summary The PIs propose a systematic investigation of the public's knowledge about and attitudes towards evolution. This project will approach the question of the public's understanding and acceptance of evolution by first conducting a series of preliminary surveys focusing on what people know about various aspects of the theory of evolution, the extent to which they accept these aspects, and any demographic factors that systematically impact their understanding and acceptance. These surveys will ask about the extent to which they appreciate descent with modification, their ability to reason about phylogenetic relationships, and whether they preferentially accept adaptive explanations. The results of these surveys will then be used to construct a single questionnaire, which will be administered to a demographically representative panel of 1,000 U.S. citizens. The PIs will additionally conducted targeted interviews with individuals who accept evolution without understanding it, as well as individuals who do not accept evolution, to gain a deeper understanding of sources of misconceptions about evolution. The PIs will investigate several hypotheses about why Americans resist accepting evolution. Using the same procedure indicated, the PIs will develop a second survey instrument, which will be administered to a second demographically balanced panel of Americans. Together, the results of these two surveys will produce the most highly refined data about Americans' views on evolution that have ever been collected.