Contested Knowledge and Spillover

Abstract

This article introduces the concepts of contested knowledge and spillover to aid in understanding the relation between the controversy over evolution and related ideas and uncontested science knowledge. Contested knowledge exists wherever truth claims from multiple spheres of knowledge authority overlap, large or small. Spillover is a process of (1) a rejection of the authority of knowledge elites from an opposed knowledge sphere, and (2) devaluation of the set of heuristics for evidence tied to specific knowledges (contested and uncontested), a process that has wide-reaching implications. Using four waves of data from the General Social Survey (GSS; 2006–2012), I find evidence that conservative Protestant affiliation is associated with reduced knowledge of the physical and life sciences. This bivariate association is fully mediated, primarily through the rejection of mainstream scientific accounts of evolution. Findings also suggest that conservative Protestant affiliation increases the likelihood of that rejection. I argue that positions within this contested knowledge area spill over to other, uncontested forms of scientific knowledge. Results are validated using the 2014 wave of the GSS.