LOS ANGELES, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- After years of debate, about one-third of the U.S. population does not believe in evolution, a figure that is the highest in the world's developed countries, a study published Friday on the journal Science said.

The study, conducted by the researchers at the Michigan State University, found that the U.S. public is equally divided when it comes to accepting or rejecting the statement "Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals."

By comparison, more adults in Japan and the 32 European countries accept the theory of evolution and in Scandinavian countries up to 80 percent accept the theory, the study said.

Only adults in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, were less likely to accept the concept of evolution than U.S. adults.

There were several reasons for the low acceptance in the U.S. public, the researchers said, adding that the most significant factor was the influence of fundamentalist religions.

"The total effect of fundamentalist religious beliefs on the attitude toward evolution was nearly twice as much in the United States," said Jon Miller, a professor at the Michigan State University who led the study.

"Individuals who hold a strong belief in a personal God -- and who pray frequently -- were significantly less likely to view evolution as probably or definitely true than adults with less conservative religious views," he added.

In addition, the issue of evolution has become highly politicized in the United States, with the Republican Party in particular often using it as a test for possible candidates for office.

"There is no major political party in Europe and Japan that uses opposition to evolution as a part of its political ambition," Miller said. "In the United States, there are people who think it is a political advantage to discount evolution."

In addition, the researchers found that persons with strong pro-life beliefs were significantly more likely to reject evolution than those with pro-choice views.

"The total effect of pro-life attitudes on the acceptance of evolution was much greater in the United States than in the nine European countries surveyed," Miller said.

A lack of genetic literacy on the part of many American adults also plays a role, the researchers added.

For example, only a third of U.S. adults agree that more than half of human genes are identical to those of mice, and only 38 percent of adults recognize that humans have more than half of their genes in common with chimpanzees.

"These results should be troubling for (U.S.) science educators at all levels," the researchers said, adding that the growing number of adults who are uncertain about these ideas suggests the current science instruction in the United States is not effective.Enditem