Imagining atheists: Reducing fundamental distrust in atheist intergroup attitudes.

Abstract

Atheists represent both one of the largest groups in the landscape of belief and one of the most universally derogated groups in American society. Two studies investigate the factors underlying negative and positive attitudes toward atheists. Study 1 demonstrates that religious fundamentalism and distrust uniquely predict more negative attitudes toward atheists. Study 2 investigates the malleability of intergroup attitudes toward atheists through an imagined interaction exercise. Participants who imagined an interaction with an atheist (relative to those who thought about atheists) reported less distrust toward atheists, and more willingness to engage and cooperate with atheists. These effects persisted even among those relatively high in religious fundamentalism.

Prejudice toward Christians and atheists among members of nonreligious groups: Attitudes, behaviors, and mechanisms

“…With the rise of the number of people who identify as nonreligious (estimated at 23% in 2014 according to the Pew Religious Landscape Survey; Pew Research Center, 2014a), researchers have turned their attention to the ways that nonreligious people are perceived and treated by society (e.g., Gervais, 2013) and to strategies that might reduce the prejudice they face by religious people (LaBouff & Ledoux, 2016). However, we know little about their characteristics as a group and whether they uniformly display tolerance or prejudice.…”

“…The religious' rigid style of belief predicts prejudice against groups that may pose a threat to their social identity and values (Wetherell, Brandt, & Reyna, 2013) or that are simply dissimilar to them (Brandt & Van Tongeren, 2017). Further, prejudice towards the nonreligious has been explained from sociofunctional perspectives (Cook, Cottrell, & Webster, 2015;Gervais, 2014), suggesting that because the nonreligious may not share a belief in a powerful moral watcher, they are more likely to behave immorally, and thus the content of nonreligious prejudice is primarily distrust (Gervais, 2013;Giddings & Dunn, 2016;LaBouff & Ledoux, 2016). The same social processes that are involved in religious bias towards the nonreligious are certainly possible when it comes to attitudes towards the religious by the nonreligious.…”

Dimensions of religiousness and their connection to racial, ethnic, and atheist prejudices

“…Perceiving atheists as concerned for caring/compassion predicts less anti-atheist prejudice [ 49 ]. Building on classic intergroup contact research, imagining an interaction with an atheist reduced distrust and increased cooperative intent among religious fundamentalists in the United States [ 50 ].…”

Trust and Trustworthiness of Christians, Muslims, and Atheists/Agnostics in the United States

“…For instance, as Christians gain more exposure to Muslims, they might learn that they are, as implied by our study, no less trustworthy than the Christians they already trust. Further, LaBouff and Ledoux (2016) find that even imagined interactions with people of different beliefs may increase trust. Social exposure as a builder of trust is also consistent with the finding that Europeans have become more comfortable with a country leader with a religious belief that differs from their own belief as the share of friends with beliefs different from their own has increased (European Commission 2012).…”