A decade of change, a decade of Evo in the News

Posted September 3, 2021

In science, explanations like evolution are accepted or rejected based on evidence — and in that sphere, evolutionary theory has more than proven its worth. Experiments, field studies, observations, and fossils — all of it lines up behind the idea that different species evolved from shared ancestors and that natural selection and other evolutionary processes shape the traits of lineages. However, in the public sphere, particularly in the United States, evolutionary theory has not fared so well. Between around 1950 and 2007, surveys suggest that less than half of American adults accepted evolution. But that is changing. Researchers just announced that, over the last decade, we crossed over the halfway mark: the majority of American adults surveyed now report accepting evolution as an explanation for humans. The new research delves into factors that might help explain this shift, such as a rise in number of people enrolling in four-year college degree programs and college-level science courses. Here, we’ll focus on the evolutionary science that accompanied this uptick in acceptance.

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