coe-staff: Pat Heath Hawley - Colloquium: Exploiting the Opponent’s Playbook - Mon 3/28 @ 11:30am

[Denise McKenney]

Educational Methodology, Policy and Leadership (EMPL) is pleased to announce the following colloquium:


Patricia H. Hawley
Texas Tech University

Exploiting the Opponent’s Playbook: Integrating Intelligent Design Rhetoric and Psychological Theories of Change to Ameliorate Cognitions and Emotions about Evolution

Monday, March 28, 2016
119 Lokey Education Bldg
11:30am - 1:00pm
Lunch provided

It is well known that attitudes toward evolutionary theory (especially as it relates to humans) are tepid at best and hostile at worst in the U.S. The factors underlying the obstacles to acceptance are well known and documented across many regions of the nation. However, the issue has enjoyed proportionally less focus as it pertains to treatments and solutions. At the same time, the “other side” is organized, highly visible, well-funded, and has developed practiced talking points. Efforts for enhancing knowledge about the nature of science and attitudes towards evolution have focused predominantly on content delivery under the implicit (and faulty) assumption that with changes in knowledge come changes in beliefs. In contrast, the novel program presented here targets anxieties stemming from epistemological entanglements created and exploited by the intelligent design movement. Success of the program is evident in significant reductions in propaganda endorsement, misconceptions, and negative emotions about the theory and its implications. The program demonstrates how the intelligent design movement’s own playbook can be used to undermine its pervasive societal influence.


Patricia Hawley, Ph.D. is a Professor in the College of Education at Texas Tech University, after having spent more than a decade in the Department of Psychology at the University of Kansas. Her research is interdisciplinary and resides at the interface of evolutionary theory, human development, and psychological measurement, which she linked while at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany. In developmental psychology circles, she is predominantly known for her theory on human social dominance (Resource Control Theory; Hawley, 1999), her work on aggression and peer relationships (Aggression and Adaptation: The Bright Side to Bad Behavior; Hawley, Little, & Rodkin, 2007), and, more recently, bullying (Hawley & Williford, 2015). In evolutionary circles, her volume with David Buss is notable (The Evolution of Personality and Individual Differences, 2011), as is her integration of theory and application to educational contexts (e.g., bullying intervention). Most relevant to her colloquium is her recent work on the structure of cognition, motivation, and evolutionary knowledge and its relationship to educational outcomes. To this end, the Evolution Attitudes and Literacy Scale was developed (EALS; Hawley et al., 2011) and its validated short form used to document the deficiencies in traditional biology education (Short & Hawley, 2014). Adding to her integrated programs of interdisciplinary research, her present work focuses on advancing cognitive and attitudinal change in educational contexts by way of psychological change theories and the rhetoric of the intelligent design movement.

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