Preliminary evidence for an aversion to atheists in long-term mating domains in the Southern United States

Abstract

The centrality of religiosity in selecting long-term mates suggests atheism could be undesirable for that context. Given recent findings suggesting several positive stereotypes about atheists, a largely distrusted group, individuals could prefer atheists in mating domains not emphasizing long-term commitment (i.e., short-term mating). Two studies tasked U.S. participants with evaluating long-term and short-term mating desirability of theists and atheists while assessing perceptions of their personalities. Study 1 indicated atheists were more desirable in short-term mating than long-term mating, though this preference did not translate to being preferred over theists. The pre-registered Study 2 demonstrated this effect is specific to physically attractive targets. Atheists were further perceived as more prone to infidelity, especially when attractive. Results are framed from an evolutionary perspective while discussing anti-atheist prejudice.

Contextual desirability of strong men employing affiliative and aggressive humor

“…Another set of analyses came from a modified version of the 10‐Item Personality Inventory designed to assess perceptions of a target's personality within the Big Five (Brown, Keefer, Sacco, & Brown, 2022). All traits exhibited acceptable reliabilities for two‐item subscales, with one item being reverse‐scored for each trait (1 = Strongly Disagree ; 7 = Strongly Agree ; Spearman‐Brown: 0.32–0.63; Brown, 2022).…”

Distrusted disclosures: Deception drives anti-transgender but not anti-atheist prejudice

“…While atheists are also a historically distrusted group, it is possible that failure to disclose an atheist identity is viewed as less egregious than failure to disclose information surrounding one’s gender or sexuality. Although the dating scenario was selected based on research that both atheist and transgender identities are viewed as highly important in dating contexts (e.g., Lipka and Martinez, 2014 ; Blair and Hoskin, 2019 ; Brown, 2022 ), it is possible that transgender identity is viewed as a more critical piece of information in early dating scenarios. Follow-up research should evaluate explicit expectations for disclosing various stigmatized identities (e.g., sexual orientation), as well as non-stigmatized identities to create a more nuanced understanding of the level of stigma faced by both transgender individuals and by atheists.…”

“…For example, distrust toward atheists may be more prominent in circumstances that elicit concerns of the morality or moral predictability of the target (e.g., trust in a target tasked with making a moral decision). While value is placed behind the morality of relational partners in long-term dating relationships, participants may place less value behind morality in short-term relationships (such as the vignette provided to participants) decreasing the impact of perceived immorality of atheist targets ( Brown, 2022 ). Follow up research explicitly evaluating perceptions of atheist or transgender targets tasked with moral decisions would not only provide further clarity on distrust toward transgender and atheist individuals, but would allow for an exploration of anti-atheist attitudes in political domains in which atheist candidates would be entrusted with critical moral decisions.…”

“…Despite increased identification, both groups continue to be perceived as highly untrustworthy ( Gervais et al, 2011 ; Franks and Scherr, 2014 ; Huffaker and Kwon, 2016 ; Gervais et al, 2017 ; Grove et al, 2020 ) and face high levels of social stigma ( Anderson, 2020 ; Rios et al, 2021 ). Moreover, both transgender and atheist identities are potentially concealable, yet they are deemed particularly important in dating or romantic contexts (e.g., Lipka and Martinez, 2014 ; Blair and Hoskin, 2019 ; Brown, 2022 ). Given the similarities in elicited emotions, the current study looks at perceptions of atheists and transgender individuals in highly sensitive interpersonal situations (i.e., dating) in which there may be a high expectation of disclosure of either identity.…”

Perceptions of inferred parental ability through sexually dimorphic facial features

“…Given the perceptual acuity toward preferred reproductive strategies in social targets through physical features (e.g., Brown 2022), selection could have favored similar acuity toward features connoting men and women's capabilities to provide nurturance and protection. For example, women with large breasts are perceived as particularly effective at nurturance, namely through breastfeeding (Dixson et al, 2015).…”