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We report the results of a new survey of the American public to explore cosmological beliefs and the reasons for those beliefs. We find that cosmological knowledge is associated with age, gender, education, and membership in a church or religious organization. The majority of people believe that the universe is static. In reaction to the idea of an expanding universe, some respondents expressed fear of unknown change and danger to earth. The identification of such factors may provide insight into the psychological and social environment in which science is done.
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Lightman et al. (1989) studied this question.
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