Misconceptions about human evolution have circulated since the 1920s. At Stony Brook University, researchers in the Department of Ecology and Evolution are working to correct common misunderstandings, such as the belief that evolution occurs because organisms need to adapt, while also challenging how the public perceives ecology as a field.
“There’s a huge amount of empirical research, probably 300 to 400 published papers on misconceptions among middle school students, high school students, college students, graduate students and the general public,” Ross H. Nehm, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, said.
Nehm explained the “survival of the fittest” evolution is not accurate because, in reality, evolutionary changes occur from a mutation forming and outperforming other traits in natural selection.
A common example of one of these mutations is being tolerant to lactose. Around 10,000 years ago, humans were lactose intolerant. However, after the domestication of animals, a mutation that enabled continued lactase production — an enzyme that helps digest lactose — appeared in some human populations, like those in Northern Europe. Individuals with this mutation were more likely to survive and reproduce in environments where dairy was a key food source, leading to the increased prevalence of lactose tolerance today.
Joshua Rest, an associate professor and the chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolution, shared another misconception she believes many people do not realize: evolution is ongoing and observable.
“Students are surprised to learn that evolution actually can happen by a whole bunch of different mechanisms. It’s not just survival of the fittest or adaptation,” Rest said.
Marin L. M. Beaupré, a lecturer in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, has been teaching for over 20 years and noted that evolution misconceptions not only vary geographically but shift over time.
According to Beaupré, religion, environmental climate and political stances throughout the United States influence the understanding of evolution. These factors have affected not only curricula but also laws that dictate what can be taught about the subject.
To combat these misconceptions, the department has taken a more hands-on approach to teaching. Students in their BIO 201 (Fundamentals of Biology: Organisms to Ecosystems) class evaluate their misconceptions before learning the class material; often, the process leads to surprising results, according to the department’s professors.
Beaupré and Nehm mentioned that students in the class tend to consider themselves more knowledgeable about evolution at the beginning of the semester. However, their actual score on the evaluation tends to be lower than what they anticipated.
“People are stunned,” Nehm said. “They’re like, ‘I had no idea that I had all these misconceptions.'”
By using this self-assessment approach, it can help professors target areas of evolution where students were previously mistaken, fostering a more inclusive learning approach.
Both Beaupré and Nehm also agree that directly addressing misconceptions is a vital tool for students to become scientifically literate members of society.
“I choose to address the misconceptions head-on,” Beaupré said. “It’s okay to have misconceptions [and] it’s understandable, but this is what the evidence shows.”
With this hands-on and direct approach to dispel misconceptions, the goal is to create an environment where professors and researchers can educate students and their peers. Beyond the classroom, scientific misunderstandings can reach a broader audience using social media.
According to a study published in “Evolution: Education and Outreach,” “96% of the popular media references mentioned by students in our study inaccurately depicted evolution.” As they spread on social media, scientific concepts can be further skewed and easily misinterpreted, leading to distortions, the study found.
However, Wenbo Li, an assistant professor who specializes in science communication in the School of Communication and Journalism, explained that there is another player in social media. While these platforms have the potential to spread misinformation about science, influencers or content creators can combat this by spreading accurate information to their mass followings.
Even with the help of social media, professors and researchers of ecology continue to deal with misunderstandings about their field of research.
Beaupré further explained that people tend to view their work as a lighthearted subject.
“ I think a lot of students come into ecology thinking, first of all, that it’s not as rigorous as other sciences and that, it’s just a bunch of people out at the beach watching dolphins or it’s, sometimes I guess I also have students that automatically equate [it] with activism,” Beaupré said.
There is also a belief that ecology is activism or “soft science.” These assumptions devalue ecology and the work being put into advancing the field, according to Beaupré.
Ecologists’ work involves expertise in multiple skills, ranging from the analysis of data to the development of policies and regulations on conservation. Recognizing ecology for its complex values is important not only for the progression of the field but for developing solutions that prevent the spread of misconceptions.
