EvoS Journal: The Journal of the Evolutionary Studies Consortium
Volume 9, Issue 1, 2021-2022
Title
The 2020 Survey of Evolutionary Scholars on the State of Human Evolutionary Science
Author(s)
Daniel J. Kruger, Maryanne L. Fisher, Steven M. Platek, & Catherine Salmon
Abstract
A decade ago, we conducted the first systematic survey of the state of the evolutionary approach to human research. Respondents were optimistic in their views that evolutionary research would become more accepted and prominent, although they tended to believe that growth and advancement of the field would be a slow process. We conducted a second wave in 2020, recruiting previous respondents and members of five relevant academic societies to participate in an on-line survey. Respondents’ (N = 579) assessments of the state of evolutionary research in both their departments and fields generally resembled those in expressed in 2010. Most respondents reported gradual progress in the prominence of evolutionary perspectives in the past decade and had expectations such progress would continue, though their views were less optimistic that those of a decade previous. Many of the themes regarding the benefits and challenges of using an evolutionary perspective were repeated; however, many respondents reported an overall political shift in academia toward ideologies and interests that were more hostile toward evolutionary approaches to understanding human psychology and behavior.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.59077/EYFV6771
How to cite this article:
Kruger, D. J., Fisher, M. L., Platek, S. M., & Salmon, C. (2022). The 2020 survey of evolutionary scholars on the state of human evolutionary science. The Journal of the Evolutionary Studies Consortium, 9(1), 37-63. https://doi.org/10.59077/EYFV6771
