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The public acceptance of evolution in the United States is a long-standing problem. Using data from a series of national surveys collected over the last 35 years, we find that the level of public acceptance of evolution has increased in the last decade after at least two decades in which the public was nearly evenly divided on the issue. A structural equation model indicates that increasing enrollment in baccalaureate-level programs, exposure to college-level science courses, a declining level of religious fundamentalism, and a rising level of civic scientific literacy are responsible for the increased level of public acceptance.

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In spite of the efforts devoted to understand the relationship of society with science, the results have not been satisfactory. The aim of this study is to test the PIKA model, developed to contribute to a better understanding of the perspective of citizens in the relationship of society with science. Our hypothesis is that the interaction of citizens with science generates an image that determines how they react to it. We conceive this image as a mental map, and according to contributions from neurology, we consider that it is grounded on a neural net. The PIKA model postulates that there is a section of the image of science that accounts for the interaction of Perception, Interest, Knowledge, and willingness to Act. We used Structural Equation Modelling to obtain evidence to support this model. We used data from three Spanish samples: the 2006 and 2014 editions of the Survey on Social Perception of Science and Technology by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, and the answers to the PIKA Questionnaire of a sample of students from several Spanish universities. The sample of the 2006 edition of the survey of FECYT is comprised by 7.056 subjects from 18 years of age, while the 2014 edition includes 6.136 people. The sample that has Original Research Article

The Covid‐19 pandemic posed new issues about vaccination and contagious diseases that had not been the focus of public policy debate in the United States since the tuberculosis pandemic of the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Using a national address‐based probability sample of American adults in 2020 and a structural equation model, this analysis seeks to understand the role of education, age, gender, race, education, partisanship, religious fundamentalism, biological literacy, and understanding of the coronavirus to predict individual intention concerning taking the Covid‐19 vaccine. Given the substantial changes in the United States since the tuberculosis pandemic, it is important to understand the factors that drive acceptance and hesitancy about Covid‐19 vaccination. We find that education, biological literacy, and understanding of the coronavirus were strong positive predictors of willingness to be vaccinated and religious fundamentalism and conservative partisanship were strong negative predictors of intent to vaccinate. These results should be encouraging to the scientific community.