Abstract

This study investigates the key factors influencing acceptance of the relevance of evolutionary theory to human behaviour, and the attitudes underlying them. Using data gathered from a wide-ranging questionnaire survey of students and staff in UK universities on attitudes to science, evolution and its application to human behaviour, multivariate analysis reveals that studying social sciences and sociocultural anthropology correlate with rejection of evolutionary approaches. The incompatibility of social science conceptions of humankind and human behaviour with evolutionary theory are discussed, with particular emphasis on the cultural focus of social scientists and modern attempts to incorporate cultural interactions into evolutionary approaches.