Distrust Feeds Anti-Atheist Prejudice

[rug]

New research finds atheists are widely perceived as untrustworthy, which may be a major factor in why they’re disliked more than other minorities.

November 15, 2011
By Tom Jacobs

Plenty of people are reviled for their religious beliefs. But a lack of faith seems to inspire even more intense antipathy.

A landmark 2006 study, analyzing data from a large survey of Americans, found that atheists “are less likely to be accepted, publicly and privately, than any others from a long list of ethnic, religious and other minority groups.” Writing in the American Sociological Review, researchers noted that “while rejection of Muslims may have spiked in post-9/11 America, rejection of atheists was higher.”

So why are atheists “among the least liked people … in most of the world,” in the words of a research team led by University of British Columbia psychologist Will Gervais? In a newly published paper, he and his colleagues provide evidence supporting a plausible explanation.

Atheists, they argue, are widely viewed as people you cannot trust.

http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/distrust-powers-anti-atheist-prejudice-37784/

[pipoman]

1. Boohoo

[Goblinmonger]

8. Wow. Feel the love. n/t

[laconicsax]

10. Can you imagine if someone said the same thing to a Christian?

How long do you think it would take to get deleted? From the time of the first alert, of course.

[MarkCharles]

12. About 2 minutes. Atheists cannot condemn the feelings of the religious here. That's...

an unstated rule. But vice versa?

But, then again, which atheist is going to complain about the lack of sensitivity and empathy of a religious person's post?
(We see that in just about every post those folks put up here! That 'my way or highway' attitude.)

[cleanhippie]

9. Man, I wish I had your empathy. Or is that apathy.

:puke:

[NMMNG]

21. You're filled with Christ's love, aren't you?

:sarcasm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umLUKBlpyoY

[Towlie]

2. How can you trust someone whose morals come from within?

Wouldn't you prefer people who have to look things up in a book written by their primitive, ignorant ancestors to figure out what's good and what's evil?

[WhollyHeretic]

3. I know I only trust people who are threatened to adhere to a set of morals

[laconicsax]

4. As a preacher I once me said...

"If there was no god, we'd all go around bonking each other on the heads."

[LeftishBrit]

13. I assume that your preacher was not a user of British English!

[laconicsax]

14. You assume correctly.

He was using a lot of Southern colloquialisms through a thick Kenyan (based on the story he told me) accent.

[LeftishBrit]

18. Good!

'Bonk' to a Brit does not mean 'hit'!

[rug]

19. Lol!

[darkstar3]

20. That depends on your interpretation of the phrase "hit that".

[TygrBright]

5. Huh?!? Priests molest children, televangelists graft, and ATHEISTS are distrusted? n/t

[and-justice-for-all]

17. I know right, makes no sense at all...nt

[saras]

6. Curiously, though, they know more about religion than any other group.

Atheists and agnostics on top
Jews and Mormons next
Catholics on the bottom

I just saw Stephen Prothero talk about his books Religious Literacy and God Is Not One, and this was one of his major points, based on the kind of research he does. Pretty interesting.

Of course, his "know about religion" is the rationalist sort of knowledge - what's the first book of the Bible? What are the four Gospels? What are the four sacred truths of Buddhism? Whose sacred book is the Koran? that sort of thing.

I can think of a bunch of potential reasons for this - it will be amusing to see which ones get emotional.

[NMMNG]

7. Curious

People who don't need spirits, "holy" men and instruction manuals to figure out right from wrong are the ones who can't be trusted? That's pretty warped thinking.

[GliderGuider]

11. No surprise here - it's about perceptions, not reason

These sorts of value judgements are made unconsciously, driven by inputs from parts of the brain that are heavily controlled by social herding instincts, and conditioned by value sets people learned at a very young age.

The judgement is made by the unconscious, before the conscious mind is even aware that a decision is being made. The resulting thought is then presented, fully formed, to the rational mind. The neocortex isn’t even aware that it had no part in the process, and instantly dresses up the thought with post-hoc justifications that it then uses to allow itself to believe that the choice was rational.

Everybody does this. It’s not peculiar to religionists, it’s the way the human brain works. The people who were tested were simply unlucky enough to have (atheism == immoral) as part of their formative learning.

It sucks to be part of a despised minority, but trying to retrain adults on issues like this is a loser from the git-go. Values like this are probably fixed before the age of 5. That’s why the Jesuits say, “Give me the child for his first seven years, and I'll give you the man.”

[deacon_sephiroth]

15. maybe it's an issue of appearence

if we wore more shiny baubles, big hats, some fancy robes, maybe invented some arbitrary rituals to do in our free time and... no... no... that would make us asshats.

[and-justice-for-all]

16. Its because we do not have invisible friends...

but we do have a relationship with reality, something people with invisible friends can not handle.