Disbelief in human evolution associated with greater prejudice and racism

[essentialsaltes]

A disbelief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes and support of discriminatory behavior against Blacks, immigrants and the LGBTQ community in the U.S., according to University of Massachusetts Amherst research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Similarly, across the globe—in 19 Eastern European countries, 25 Muslim countries and in Israel—low belief in evolution was linked to higher biases within a person's group, prejudicial attitudes toward people in different groups and less support for conflict resolution.

In testing their hypothesis about the associations of different levels of belief in evolution, they accounted for education, political ideology, religiosity, cultural identity and scientific knowledge.

"We found the same results each time, which is basically that believing in evolution relates to less prejudice, regardless of the group you're in, and controlling for all of these alternative explanations," Syropoulos says.

The data analysis showed unfailingly "that the disbelief in human evolution is the driving factor and most consistent predictor of prejudice in comparison to other relevant constructs," the paper states.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

Weird, I would think given evolutionary biology and materialism, the more you believe in evolution the more you will understand the evolutionary differences between the races. Sort of like the mid century Germans did. Who knew that evolution was required to be a good LGBT ally.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Weird, I would think given evolutionary biology and materialism, the more you believe in evolution the more you will understand the evolutionary differences between the races.

To put it in the words of the researcher: "There have been theoretical accounts that predict the opposite of what we found, so it was exciting for us to show that this actually is not the case, that the opposite is true and that belief in evolution seems to have pretty positive effects," Leidner says.

Sort of like the mid century Germans did.

The Nuremberg Laws and Nazi race theory were not grounded in evolutionary biology (or materialism for that matter).

Who knew that evolution was required to be a good LGBT ally.

It's just correlated; not automatic.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

To put it in the words of the researcher: "There have been theoretical accounts that predict the opposite of what we found, so it was exciting for us to show that this actually is not the case, that the opposite is true and that belief in evolution seems to have pretty positive effects," Leidner says.



The Nuremberg Laws and Nazi race theory were not grounded in evolutionary biology (or materialism for that matter).



It's just correlated; not automatic.

Yeah, I don't buy the research. I will say that if we're going to take evolutionary theory to it's end, why wouldn't it result more necessarily in racism or being anti LGBT? Is being a homosexual a beneficial trait evolutionary or is it more an evolutionary dead end?

You might not like the conclusions of the Germans, but it was rooted in an evolutionary ethos which sought the goal of the dominance of the Germanic races against others. Even beyond that if you take evolution too far as an inspiration for how to live, why not embrace eugenics? We see it in dogs and other animals, why not people? We are no different from other animals or creatures in said view after all with no metaphysical significance.

So I don't buy not believing in evolution being the reason for racism or being Anti LGBT. Islam and Eastern Europe are traditional countries with higher ingroup preference than Western countries. That's all there is to it.

 

[essentialsaltes]

I will say that if we're going to take evolutionary theory to it's end, why wouldn't it result more necessarily in racism or being anti LGBT? Is being a homosexual a beneficial trait evolutionary or is it more an evolutionary dead end?

Because you're misunderstanding what science is and what evolution says. Warden of the Storm made a thread called "Evolution is DEscriptive not PREscriptive" which is exactly on this topic. Maybe you should start there.

You might not like the conclusions of the Germans, but it was rooted in an evolutionary ethos

I doubt you could establish that.

Islam and Eastern Europe are traditional countries with higher ingroup preference than Western countries. That's all there is to it.

And yet in these countries also, this correlation was still found to be true. Regardless of religion or religiosity, belief or disbelief in evolution was the best predictor of prejudicial attitudes.

 

[PloverWing]

Interesting. And unexpected, to me. I might see if my university's library has a link to the paper (without paywall) to examine the study. I'm not sure I buy the cause/effect of evolution -> less prejudice. I'd want to investigate whether both are related to some third factor, like the experience of living among a more varied group of people, or belonging to a particular religious or regional subculture, something like that (though it says they controlled for many of those factors). But definitely an interesting result.

 

[DragonFox91]

I mean, you could've just come out & said 'white conservatives are racist' or 'uneducated hicks.'

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

Because you're misunderstanding what science is and what evolution says. Warden of the Storm made a thread called "Evolution is DEscriptive not PREscriptive" which is exactly on this topic. Maybe you should start there.



I doubt you could establish that.



And yet in these countries also, this correlation was still found to be true. Regardless of religion or religiosity, belief or disbelief in evolution was the best predictor of prejudicial attitudes.

Right it's descriptive and one can take it in numerous ways. I don't see how one concludes from evolution how we ought be for LGBT rights and other leftist programs. It just doesn't follow like Eugenics does to me.

I still don't agree with the conclusion of the study because of that. Evolution is believed in the west because that's what good modern liberals believe in and good modern liberals are egalitarian in nature. Evolution simply doesn't factor into the equation of why people are less racist or more pro-lgbt. Other factors such as high ingroup preference, traditionalism and etc make more sense me. As much as it makes sense to me why the West believes and acts in the way it does.

 

[DragonFox91]

This is Dawkins militiant atheist esque.

 

[Gene2memE]

Yeah, I don't buy the research.

What reasons do you have for not buying it? What flaws or errors can you point out in the work?

I will say that if we're going to take evolutionary theory to it's end, why wouldn't it result more necessarily in racism or being anti LGBT?

Taking a stab here: because people who understand evolutionary biology will also understand that the differences between racial groups are mostly cosmetic and that we're all fundamentally the same people with the same origins.

Is being a homosexual a beneficial trait evolutionary or is it more an evolutionary dead end?

Being a homosexual is VERY DIFFERENT to whether homosexuality itself carries with it a reproductive benefit to a population. There are multiple different positive selection advantages associated with genes linked to homosexual preference, and some indirect group wide reproductive advantages associated with populations that have homosexual behavioral traits.

You might not like the conclusions of the Germans, but it was rooted in an evolutionary ethos which sought the goal of the dominance of the Germanic races against others.

The Nazis co-opted a error ridden version of evolutionary biology into their own beliefs. Nothing was 'rooted in an evolutionary ethos' - they applied a veneer of sciency sounding words on an existing framework of racial beliefs. Otherwise you wouldn't get people writing about 'higher' and 'lower' races - such things don't exist in evolutionary biology.

Even beyond that if you take evolution too far as an inspiration for how to live, why not embrace eugenics?

Evolution is descriptive, not prescriptive.
Eugenics is fundamentally flawed and in error, so there's no need to pursue it whether you believe in evolution or not.

We see it in dogs and other animals, why not people? We are no different from other animals or creatures in said view after all with no metaphysical significance.

This doesn't follow. Even if we have no significant metaphysical differences with other animals, there ARE other significant differences.

So I don't buy not believing in evolution being the reason for racism or being Anti LGBT. Islam and Eastern Europe are traditional countries with higher ingroup preference than Western countries. That's all there is to it.

The location is complete immaterial.

Within those countries and belief systems, people who had a disbelief in human evolution also had higher tendencies towards prejudice. This occurred regardless of the group they're in.

It doesn't matter if the person lives in Tbilisi (Georgia) or Atlanta (Georgia), the result is the result.

 

[DragonFox91]

Right it's descriptive and one can take it in numerous ways. I don't see how one concludes from evolution how we ought be for LGBT rights and other leftist programs. It just doesn't follow like Eugenics does to me.

They think evolution has an answer for everything, & I mean everything.

 

[essentialsaltes]

They think evolution has an answer for everything, & I mean everything.

You are mistaken. Evolution is a biological theory that answers certain biological questions. It does not have an answer for 'everything'.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

What reasons do you have for not buying it? What flaws or errors can you point out in the work?



Taking a stab here: because people who understand evolutionary biology will also understand that the differences between racial groups are mostly cosmetic and that we're all fundamentally the same people with the same origins.



Being a homosexual is VERY DIFFERENT to whether homosexuality itself carries with it a reproductive benefit to a population. There are multiple different positive selection advantages associated with genes linked to homosexual preference, and some indirect group wide reproductive advantages associated with populations that have homosexual behavioral traits.



The Nazis co-opted a error ridden version of evolutionary biology into their own beliefs. Nothing was 'rooted in an evolutionary ethos' - they applied a veneer of sciency sounding words on an existing framework of racial beliefs. Otherwise you wouldn't get people writing about 'higher' and 'lower' races - such things don't exist in evolutionary biology.



Evolution is descriptive, not prescriptive.
Eugenics is fundamentally flawed and in error, so there's no need to pursue it whether you believe in evolution or not.



This doesn't follow. Even if we have no significant metaphysical differences with other animals, there ARE other significant differences.



The location is complete immaterial.

Within those countries and belief systems, people who had a disbelief in human evolution also had higher tendencies towards prejudice. This occurred regardless of the group they're in.

It doesn't matter if the person lives in Tbilisi (Georgia) or Atlanta (Georgia), the result is the result.

How is Eugenics flawed from an evolutionary perspective? Could we not breed certain traits in people which are viewed as positive (attractiveness, disease resistance, etc) in people like we do in dogs or the food we eat?

You might have moral problems with it, but it doesn't violate evolution. Evolution is only descriptive after all.

 

[essentialsaltes]

You might have moral problems with it, but it doesn't violate evolution. Evolution is only descriptive after all.

Right, so evolution does not imply or oblige us to pursue eugenics. Neither does the Pythagorean Theorem. Any such motivation is our own.

The theory of gravity does not imply that we should make things fall down, or that we should prevent things from falling down. You might need to know about gravity to build an airplane, but aviation is not a consequence of gravity.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

Right, so evolution does not imply or oblige us to pursue eugenics. Any such motivation is our own.

The theory of gravity does not imply that we should make things fall down, or that we should prevent things from falling down. You might need to know about gravity to build an airplane, but aviation is not a consequence of gravity.

Much like it doesn't imply or oblige us to pursue egalitarianism. This is why I have a problem the study and narrative you are espousing. The beliefs don't necessarily follow, though with eugenics I see how the connection does follow.

What explains the lack of belief in LGBT in Eastern Europe is religion and the influence of traditional culture on those peoples. Not a lack of belief in evolution.

 

[essentialsaltes]

This is why I have a problem the study and narrative you are espousing.

What narrative am I espousing? I have pointed to a research study that found this correlation. If the correlation is the narrative, then at least my 'narrative' is supported by empirical evidence.

What explains the lack of belief in LGBT in Eastern Europe is religion and the influence of traditional culture on those peoples. Not a lack of belief in evolution.

Overall acceptance is lower there, sure. But it's interesting that this correlation still exists within those cultural subpopulations.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

A disbelief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes and support of discriminatory behavior against Blacks, immigrants and the LGBTQ community in the U.S., according to University of Massachusetts Amherst research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Similarly, across the globe—in 19 Eastern European countries, 25 Muslim countries and in Israel—low belief in evolution was linked to higher biases within a person's group, prejudicial attitudes toward people in different groups and less support for conflict resolution.

In testing their hypothesis about the associations of different levels of belief in evolution, they accounted for education, political ideology, religiosity, cultural identity and scientific knowledge.

"We found the same results each time, which is basically that believing in evolution relates to less prejudice, regardless of the group you're in, and controlling for all of these alternative explanations," Syropoulos says.

The data analysis showed unfailingly "that the disbelief in human evolution is the driving factor and most consistent predictor of prejudice in comparison to other relevant constructs," the paper states.

This is just a new way to degrade Gods creation. Humans, no matter what color, are not animals. If there is any discrimination it lyes in the distorted definition that animals are made in Gods image.
Blessings

 

[TLK Valentine]

A disbelief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes and support of discriminatory behavior against Blacks, immigrants and the LGBTQ community in the U.S., according to University of Massachusetts Amherst research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Similarly, across the globe—in 19 Eastern European countries, 25 Muslim countries and in Israel—low belief in evolution was linked to higher biases within a person's group, prejudicial attitudes toward people in different groups and less support for conflict resolution.

In testing their hypothesis about the associations of different levels of belief in evolution, they accounted for education, political ideology, religiosity, cultural identity and scientific knowledge.

"We found the same results each time, which is basically that believing in evolution relates to less prejudice, regardless of the group you're in, and controlling for all of these alternative explanations," Syropoulos says.

The data analysis showed unfailingly "that the disbelief in human evolution is the driving factor and most consistent predictor of prejudice in comparison to other relevant constructs," the paper states.

Are we surprised? racism and discrimination are learned behaviors that teach certain people are deserving of such behavior. Religious systems (at least in the West) are predicated on and teach inherent inequality -- God's chosen vs His unchosen; the saved vs the unsaved; the faithful vs the infidel.

And what's the proper way to deal with an infidel?

Marx was wrong -- religion isn't the opiate of the masses... But apparently it can be a gateway drug.

 

[Occams Barber]

Weird, I would think given evolutionary biology and materialism, the more you believe in evolution the more you will understand the evolutionary differences between the races. Sort of like the mid century Germans did. Who knew that evolution was required to be a good LGBT ally.

Even with a basic understanding of evolution you come to see that the differences between various human groups are relatively minor and superficial compared to their overall similarities.

If you understand, and accept, the basic evolutionary mechanism (mutation plus natural selection) you can also grasp how these small differences come about. Most of the differences are cosmetic, simple, responses to the local environment - particularly climate.

It's easy to see how someone who lacks an understanding of evolution would tend to see variability as something deep seated and intrinsic resulting in a tendency to over emphasise the significance of differences.

OB

 

[renniks]

Most anyone can find correlation if they want to bad enough.