“Force-Talk” in Evolutionary Explanation: Metaphors and Misconceptions

The notion of “pressure” as an evolutionary “force” that “causes” evolution is a pervasive linguistic feature of biology textbooks, journal articles, and student explanatory discourse. We investigated the consequences of using a textbook and curriculum that incorporate so-called force-talk. We examined the frequency with which biology majors spontaneously used notions of evolutionary “pressures” in their explanations, students’ definitions and explanations of what they meant when they used pressures, and the structure of explanatory models that incorporated evolutionary pressures and forces. We found that 12–20 percent of undergraduates spontaneously used “pressures” and/or “forces” as explanatory factors but significantly more often in trait gain scenarios than in trait loss scenarios. The majority of explanations using “force-talk” were characterized by faulty evolutionary reasoning. We discuss the conceptual similarity between faulty notions of evolutionary pressures and linguists’ force-dynamic models of everyday reasoning and ultimately question the appropriateness of force-talk in evolution education.