not believing in evolution is linked to racism, bigotry

the research disproves a common misconception that charles darwin’s theory of “survival of the fittest” which is used to describe natural selection — the process by which those adapted to their environment are most successful in surviving and reproducing — encourages racism and prejudice.

belief in evolution has positive effects

“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,” dr. bernhard leidner, one of the study’s co-authors, told the university of massachusetts amherst’s news outlet .

the study, published in the journal of personality and social psychology , used nationally representative data from 45 countries, across numerous communities and at various points in time. looking at people in the u.s., israel, eastern europe and the middle east, researchers examined first their attitudes towards human evolution and then their views on social issues and groups other than their own. the findings showed that a “low belief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes, and support for discriminatory behaviours.”

different regions hold different discriminatory beliefs

in the studies from the u.s., belief in evolution meant less discrimination against black people, immigrants, and lgbtq people. in the eastern european countries, it meant less prejudiced attitudes towards jews, muslims and roma people . in israel, people who believed in evolution were more likely to support a peaceful resolution in palestine; the pro-evolution people in muslim-majority countries were less likely to be intolerant towards jews and christians.