--- title: "It Turns Out People Who Don’t Believe in Evolution Are Racist Jerks" description: "People who think evolution is a bunch of academic hogwash are, per a new study, much more likely to be bigoted." date: "2022-04-27" modified: "2022-04-27" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/evolution-racism-link" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "evolution" - "racism" - "social science" --- # It Turns Out People Who Don’t Believe in Evolution Are Racist Jerks ![People who think evolution is a bunch of academic hogwash are, per a new study, much more likely to be bigoted.]() *\Image: Getty Images\* People who think evolution is a bunch of hogwash are, per a new study, much more likely to be bigoted. In [a new interview with *PsyPost*](), University of Massachusetts at Amherst researcher Stylianos Syropoulos discusses the implications of a new study his team [published in the *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology*](). Syropoulos and his colleagues found that in the United States — as well as in Eastern Europe and the Middle East — that a low threshold of belief in the theory of evolution corresponded with higher prejudices both within one's own group as well as bigotry towards people of other creeds, races, and nationalities. "Our findings were consistent across cultural, religious, and national contexts, for majority and minority groups, and even towards groups that were fictional (i.e., created by the research team)," Syropoulos told *PsyPost*. The effect appear to be strong across the world. In Israel, for instance, they [found that]() "people with a higher belief in evolution were more likely to support peace among Palestinians, Arabs and Jews." In Muslim countries, they demonstrated that belief in evolution was "associated with less prejudice toward Christians and Jews," and in the 19 primarily Orthodox Christian Eastern European countries they analyzed, belief in evolution was correlated with less prejudice towards Jews, Muslims, and Roma people. Syropoulos noted that the researchers' findings "are correlational," which means that they are not positing that disbelief in evolution *causes* prejudice, but rather that there is a correlation that previously had gone unexplored. That said, Syropoulos added that the relationship between disbelief in evolution and greater rates of bigotry "was consistent, and remained significant after adjusting for key psychological variables such as ideology or religiosity." The finding is particularly poignant because, as the researchers noted in their statement about their study, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution has in the past been used as a vehicle for racism via its foundational "survival of the fittest" and natural selection tenets. "There have been theoretical accounts that predict the opposite of what we found," Bernhard Leidner, an associate professor of psychology at UMass, said, "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." **READ MORE:** [People who reject the theory of human evolution tend to have more bigoted attitudes]() \[*PsyPost*\] **More on evolution:** [*Scientist Says There May Be a Species of Hobbit-Like Humanoids Hiding on an Island*]() **More on jerks:** *[Scientists Are Studying the Psychology of "A\*\*holes"]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()