New Study: Majority of Americans believe in evolution
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – A new study has found that, after decades of public opinion on the issue being evenly divided, a majority of Americans now say they believe in the theory of evolution, Israel365 News reports. The study was published by the University of Michigan in the journal Public Understanding of Science.
The study asked participants whether or not they agreed with the statement “Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals,” I365 said. Between 2009 and 2019, the percentage of American adults who agreed with this statement increased from 40% to 54%, the study showed.
According to the study, higher levels of education are an important factor driving the increase in acceptance of evolution. “Almost twice as many Americans held a college degree in 2018 as in 1988,” study co-author Mark Ackerman, a researcher at Michigan Engineering, the U-M School of Information and Michigan Medicine, said.
Political affiliation was also a notable factor in determining whether participants believe in evolution: as of 2019, 34% of Republicans accepted evolution compared to 83% of liberal Democrats, the study showed.
Faith was found to be a dominant trait among those who reject evolution, and the study found that 30% of Americans consider themselves “religious fundamentalists.” Nevertheless, the study found that the percentage of “religious fundamentalists” who accepted evolution rose from 8% in 1988 to 32% in 2019, I365 said.
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