Baker, Sylvia. (2012) The Theos/ComRes survey into public perception of Darwinism in the UK : a recipe for confusion. Public Understanding of Science, Vol.21 (No.3). pp. 286-293. ISSN 0963-6625

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Abstract

A survey of the general public in the UK, conducted in 2008, suggested that more than half of the British population are unconvinced by Darwinism. That survey, conducted by the polling company ComRes on behalf of the theological think-tank Theos, reported its full findings in March 2009 and found them to be "complex and confused." This paper argues that the confusion identified may have been partly engendered by the way in which the survey questionnaire was constructed and that the survey itself, not simply its respondents, was confused. A source of the confusion, it is argued, could be found, first, in the definitions used for the four positions of young earth creationism, theistic evolution, atheistic evolution and intelligent design. Second, a failure to define the key terms "evolution" and "science," used in some of the survey questions, resulted in responses that were difficult to interpret. © The Author(s), 2010.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	L Education > L Education (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Institute of Education
Journal or Publication Title:	Public Understanding of Science
Publisher:	Sage Publications Ltd.
ISSN:	0963-6625
Date:	April 2012
Volume:	Vol.21
Number:	No.3
Page Range:	pp. 286-293
Identification Number:	10.1177/0963662510376707
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/49254

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