RE: Disbelief in human evolution linked to racism & prejudice
April 6, 2022 at 5:11 pm
(This post was last modified: April 6, 2022 at 5:16 pm by John 6IX Breezy.)
(April 5, 2022 at 1:19 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote: I don't know the details of the study, but I wonder if the correlation doesn't go the other way. (ie. bigoted and narrow-minded people don't like to do much studying, and therefore aren't familiar enough with the facts to realize how plausible a theory evolution is.)
I was briefly looking through the paper, and I think there is an interesting shift in terminology between what is measured and what is reported. For example, most of the questions that measure prejudice aren't as direct as it sounds.
Instead, they measured attitudes towards government assistance for minorities, attitudes towards affirmative action, attitudes towards immigration, etc. These include questions such as:
1. Do Blacks/Hispanics/Asians/Whites get proper government attention?
2. Should governments improve the conditions of Blacks?
3. Should governments favor preference in hiring Blacks?
4. Do Whites hurt by affirmative action?
5. Will immigrants affect national unity?
6. Should immigrants overcome bias without help?
There was only one section that really tackles prejudice in the way the word implies: General attitudes towards Blacks. Which included the following questions:
7: How close do you feel to Blacks?
8: Do Whites have a right to segregate their neighborhoods?
9. Do you feel sympathy towards Blacks?
10. And several on whether you think there are racial difference with regards to education, intelligence, motivation, and discrimination.
Here's an example of how they report the results:
"Belief in human evolution was also associated with more support for affirmative action measures towards Blacks, β = .16" ... "and negatively associated with the belief that Blacks should overcome prejudice on their own, β = -.18."
In other words, once you see the way prejudice is being measured, I think it's easier to see they are not talking about out-right racist attitudes most of the time, but something more subtle. And I think it becomes easier to think of reasons why there is a relationship. For example, most universities are liberal, so you might expect that someone who attends is both taught evolution and is in favor of affirmative action.
