TY - JOUR
T1 - Bigotry and the Human–Animal Divide
T2 - (Dis)Belief in Human Evolution and Bigoted Attitudes Across Different Cultures
AU - Syropoulos, Stylianos
AU - Lifshin, Uri
AU - Greenberg, Jeff
AU - Horner, Dylan E.
AU - Leidner, Bernhard
N1 - Funding Information:
Stylianos Syropoulos played lead role in formal analysis, investigation, methodology, project administration, software, validation and visualization, supporting role in conceptualization and equal role in writing of original draft and writing of review and editing. Uri Lifshin played lead role in conceptualization and data curation, supporting role in methodology and equal role in investigation, supervision, writing of original draft and writing of review and editing. Jeff Greenberg played lead role in writing of review and editing, supporting role in conceptualization and writing of original draft and equal role in supervision. Dylan E. Horner played supporting role in data curation, formal analysis, visualization and writing of review and editing. Bernhard Leidner played supporting role in methodology and writing of original draft and equal role in supervision and writing of review and editing
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Psychological Association
PY - 2022/2/17
Y1 - 2022/2/17
N2 - The current investigation tested if people’s basic belief in the notion that human beings have developed from other animals (i.e., belief in evolution) can predict human-to-human prejudice and intergroup hostility. Using data from the American General Social Survey and Pew Research Center (Studies 1–4), and from three online samples (Studies 5, 7, 8) we tested this hypothesis across 45 countries, in diverse populations and religious settings, across time, in nationally representative data (N = 60,703), and with more comprehensive measures in online crowdsourced data (N = 2,846). Supporting the hypothesis, low belief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes, and support for discriminatory behaviors against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ), Blacks, and immigrants in the United States (Study 1), with higher ingroup biases, prejudicial attitudes toward outgroups, and less support for conflict resolution in samples collected from 19 Eastern European countries (Study 2), 25 Muslim countries (Study 3), and Israel (Study 4). Further, among Americans, lower belief in evolution was associated with greater prejudice and militaristic attitudes toward political outgroups (Study 5). Finally, perceived similarity to animals (a construct distinct from belief in evolution, Study 6) partially mediated the link between belief in evolution and prejudice (Studies 7 and 8), even when controlling for religious beliefs, political views, and other demographic variables, and were also observed for nondominant groups (i.e., religious and racial minorities). Overall, these findings highlight the importance of belief in human evolution as a potentially key individual-difference variable predicting racism and prejudice.
AB - The current investigation tested if people’s basic belief in the notion that human beings have developed from other animals (i.e., belief in evolution) can predict human-to-human prejudice and intergroup hostility. Using data from the American General Social Survey and Pew Research Center (Studies 1–4), and from three online samples (Studies 5, 7, 8) we tested this hypothesis across 45 countries, in diverse populations and religious settings, across time, in nationally representative data (N = 60,703), and with more comprehensive measures in online crowdsourced data (N = 2,846). Supporting the hypothesis, low belief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes, and support for discriminatory behaviors against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ), Blacks, and immigrants in the United States (Study 1), with higher ingroup biases, prejudicial attitudes toward outgroups, and less support for conflict resolution in samples collected from 19 Eastern European countries (Study 2), 25 Muslim countries (Study 3), and Israel (Study 4). Further, among Americans, lower belief in evolution was associated with greater prejudice and militaristic attitudes toward political outgroups (Study 5). Finally, perceived similarity to animals (a construct distinct from belief in evolution, Study 6) partially mediated the link between belief in evolution and prejudice (Studies 7 and 8), even when controlling for religious beliefs, political views, and other demographic variables, and were also observed for nondominant groups (i.e., religious and racial minorities). Overall, these findings highlight the importance of belief in human evolution as a potentially key individual-difference variable predicting racism and prejudice.
KW - Belief in evolution
KW - Discrimination
KW - Human–animal relations
KW - Prejudice
KW - Racism
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U2 - 10.1037/pspi0000391
DO - 10.1037/pspi0000391
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85125909587
VL - 123
SP - 1264
EP - 1292
JO - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
SN - 0022-3514
IS - 6
ER -