Exploring patterns of evolution acceptance, evolution understanding, and religiosity among college biology students in the United States

Background Some of the most consistent factors associated with college students’ evolution acceptance are how much they know about evolution (understanding), and the extent to which they identify as religious (religiosity). However, few studies explore how the relationship between understanding and acceptance can be impacted by student religiosity levels. Further, students show different levels of acceptance of evolution depending on the scale of evolution and context of evolution, but few studies explore how evolution understanding is related to acceptance at different scales and in different contexts. In this study, we analyzed survey responses from 11,409 college biology students sampled from across the United States. Using linear mixed models, we explored the relationship between students’ understanding and acceptance of evolution and how their religiosity impacted that relationship. We also explored how these relationships changed based on scale and context of evolution. Results We found evidence of six different scales or contexts of evolution ranging from acceptance of microevolution to accepting that all life on Earth shares a common ancestor. We found that students were most likely to accept microevolution while they were the least likely to accept the common ancestry of life. Interactions between student religiosity and understanding of evolution were significant predictors of their acceptance of macroevolution, human evolution within the species, human common ancestry with other apes, and the common ancestry of life. Notably, among highly religious students, how much they understood about evolution was not related to how much they accepted the common ancestry of life. Conclusions This study provides evidence for six different scales or contexts of evolution for which college students have different levels of acceptance. Students accepted the common ancestry of life the least indicating that this might be important to expand upon in future research. Further, we provide evidence that the relationship between evolution acceptance and understanding depends on scale and context of evolution as well as student religiosity levels. These results indicate that acceptance of evolution among college students is more multifaceted than previously thought and that highly religious students may find it particularly difficult to translate their understanding of evolution to their acceptance.