Knowledge and Acceptance of Biological Evolution among College Students

The importance of evolution is affirmed by both scientists and science educators. Despite this, the idea of evolution remains divisive among the general population. Learning evolutionary conceptions is still difficult, more than 150 years after they were first presented.  Lack of evolution education, creationist teaching, and religious dogma clashes are the primary causes of low acceptance and knowledge of evolution among college students.  This cross-sectional survey using inferential statistics mainly investigated the link between college students’ knowledge and their acceptance of biological evolution.  It established that knowledge of biological evolution varies greatly based on their academic backgrounds and family types and that those in the higher years were able to exhibit a greater degree of acceptance towards evolutionary processes. Correlation and regression analyses demonstrated a positive linear relationship existing between knowledge and acceptance and that the former is a significant predictor variable of the latter.  This indicates that continued educational efforts may be able to enhance public perceptions of evolutionary theories.

Keywords: Evolutionary concepts; Attitude towards evolution; Higher education; Relationship between knowledge and acceptance