Which development stemmed from the popularity of social Darwinism and eugenics in the early twentieth century?
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Unfortunately, many people have persistent misconceptions about evolution. Some are simple misunderstandings — ideas that develop in the course of learning about evolution, possibly from school experiences and/or the media. Other misconceptions may stem from purposeful attempts to misrepresent evolution and undermine the public’s understanding of this topic. Browse the lists below to learn about common misconceptions regarding evolution, as well as clarifications of these misconceptions. You can also download a pdf of this section. (links need updating in PDF) Misconceptions about evolutionary theory and processesMisconceptions about natural selection and adaptationMisconceptions about evolutionary treesMisconceptions about population geneticsMisconceptions about evolution and the nature of scienceMisconceptions about the acceptance of evolutionMisconceptions about the implications of evolutionMisconceptions about evolution and religion
Misconceptions about teaching evolutionMisconceptions about evolutionary theory and processes
Similarly, we can observe rapid evolution going on around us all the time. Over the past 50 years, we’ve observed squirrels evolve new breeding times in response to climate change, a fish species evolve resistance to toxins dumped into the Hudson River, and a host of microbes evolve resistance to new drugs we’ve developed. Many different factors can foster rapid evolution — small population size, short generation time, big shifts in environmental conditions — and the evidence makes it clear that this has happened many times. To learn more about the pace of evolution, visit Evolution 101. To learn more about rapid evolution in response to human-caused changes in the environment, visit our news story on climate change , our news story on the evolution of PCB-resistant fish, or our research profile on the evolution of fish size in response to our fishing practices.
Back to top Misconceptions about natural selection and adaptation
So what’s the evolutionary explanation for altruism if it’s not for the good of the species? There are many ways that such behaviors can evolve. For example, if altruistic acts are “repaid” at other times, this sort of behavior may be favored by natural selection. Similarly, if altruistic behavior increases the survival and reproduction of an individual’s kin (who are also likely to carry altruistic genes), this behavior can spread through a population via natural selection. To learn more about the process of natural selection, visit our article on this topic. Advanced students of evolutionary biology may be interested to know that selection can act at different levels and that, in some circumstances, species-level or group-level selection may occur. However, it’s important to remember that, even in this case, selection has no foresight and is not “aiming” at any outcome; it is simply favoring the reproducing units that are best at leaving copies of themselves in the next generation. To learn more about levels of selection, visit our side trip on this topic.
Back to top Misconceptions about evolutionary trees
Back to top Misconceptions about population genetics
Back to top Misconceptions about evolution and the nature of science
Back to top Misconceptions about the acceptance of evolution
Back to top Misconceptions about the implications of evolution
Back to top Misconceptions about evolution and religion
Back to top Misconceptions about evolution and religion
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